KIRD Korea Immigration Regional Dashboard
English

Registered foreigners are counted across 192 nationalities.

Norway

People registered with Norway nationality number 323, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 80 in size. Compared with 1,527 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is a decrease of about 78.8%. They live in 65 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Seodaemun-gu with 28, Seoul Mapo-gu with 26, and Busan Haeundae-gu with 24. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.713, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.957. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Jung-gu at 28.2, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Europe. The largest age group is 20-24 at 22.9%, and men are 48.5%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Norwegian at 85.6% and Polish at 1.9%.

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy 2025 (registered foreigners by nationality, registered foreigners by nationality and district, registered foreigners by status of stay), staying foreigners by nationality and age

The index of dissimilarity, the isolation index, and the location quotient are calculated from the open dataset.

Table 1.Key indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: people, organizations, index
2025
IndicatorsNorwayAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners3231,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence6525026.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.7130.280rank 21 of 107
Isolation index0.00010.045rank 54 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9570.955rank 54 of 107
ContinentEurope48,565 (3.0% of the total)0.7% of those from Europe

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by nationality), segregation indicators from the open dataset.

Note: the dissimilarity index D measures how far a nationality's distribution across districts differs from that of Korean nationals; 0 means the two distributions match and 1 means complete separation. Isolation is the probability that a member meets someone of the same nationality, and interaction the probability of meeting a Korean resident. In the All registered foreigners column the three indices treat all registered foreigners as one group and use the same formulas. In the Relative to total column, rank 1 is the highest value among nationalities with 100 or more registered foreigners that year; in the continent row that column gives this nationality's share of all registered foreigners from the continent.

Figure 1.Norway nationals among registered foreigners, 2006–2025Unit: 10,000 persons

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year.

Note: The vertical scale resets to the size of the selected nationality.

View as table
YearNorwayVietnam
200626052,157
200749767,197
200868479,848
200968386,166
201076998,225
2011758110,564
2012909114,211
20131,306113,843
20141,664122,571
20151,527128,042
20161,162137,769
2017709151,385
2018440170,707
2019266187,334
2020208181,415
2021251178,928
2022285196,883
2023298227,930
2024286261,581
2025323293,907
Table 2.Norway nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictNorway NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Seodaemun-gu280.2
2Seoul Mapo-gu260.2
3Busan Haeundae-gu240.5
4Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si230.1
5Seoul Jung-gu210.2
6Seoul Dongdaemun-gu170.1
7Seoul Gwangjin-gu150.1
8Seoul Seongbuk-gu140.1
9Seoul Gwanak-gu130.1
10Seoul Yongsan-gu110.1

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by district and nationality).

Note: Nationwide, Norway nationals make up 0.0% of all registered foreigners, so an area whose share is above that holds relatively many of them.

Table 3.10 districts with the highest location quotient, 2025Unit: people, ratio, %
2025
RankDistrictNorway NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Jung-gu2128.20.0
2Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si2315.80.0
3Seoul Seodaemun-gu2814.80.0
4Seoul Jongno-gu1011.60.0
5Seoul Mapo-gu2611.50.0
6Busan Haeundae-gu2410.20.0
7Seoul Yongsan-gu118.60.0
8Seoul Dongdaemun-gu177.80.0
9Busan Geumjeong-gu107.70.0
10Seoul Gwangjin-gu157.20.0

Source: Location quotient from the open dataset.

Note: the location quotient is the local share divided by the national share; above 1.5 counts as over-representation.

Table 4.By status of stay Norway nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Student(D2)13541.8
Marriage Migration(F6)3711.5
Other statuses(ETC)299.0
General Trainee(D4)278.4
Trade Management(D9)247.4
Dependent Family(F3)237.1
Corporate Investment(D8)144.3
Specially Designated Activities(E7)103.1
Other statuses247.4

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by status of stay and nationality).

Note: The rows of this table add to 323, the whole of the Norway nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-411741.7
5-918992.7
10-1417892.6
15-192411133.7
20-24150589222.9
25-29127478019.4
30-346238249.5
35-395331228.1
40-443619175.5
45-492615114.0
50-54282174.3
55-593222104.9
60+71323910.8

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (staying foreigners by nationality and age).

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 655 rather than the 323 registered foreigners

Figure 2.Composition by age and sex, 2025Unit: %
2025

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (staying foreigners by nationality and age).

Note: The bar length is the share each cell holds within the whole nationality. This figure alone uses staying foreigners, so its total differs from registered foreigners.

Figure 3.Change in status-of-stay composition, 2008–2025Unit: %

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year (registered foreigners by status of stay and nationality).

Note: The share each status holds within this nationality in that year. The five largest statuses in 2025 are drawn.

View as table
Year
20080.90.00.60.468.3
20091.90.01.00.765.2
20102.00.00.90.975.4
20112.90.01.60.070.4
20124.11.02.31.363.4
20132.81.11.51.074.0
20141.71.21.11.174.3
20153.61.30.91.668.3
20165.02.11.71.764.0
20179.73.41.63.057.4
201817.55.23.08.244.5
201927.89.85.315.017.3
202022.111.512.511.110.1
202133.512.79.613.96.0
202234.711.211.211.66.3
202335.911.79.46.710.1
202435.312.69.85.26.6
202541.811.59.08.47.4
Figure 4.Residential segregation and exposure over time, 2014–2025Unit: index
Indicators

Source: Segregation indicators from the open dataset.

Note: the dissimilarity index D measures how far a nationality's distribution across districts differs from that of Korean nationals, isolation is the probability that a member meets someone of the same nationality, and interaction the probability of meeting a Korean resident. The three run on different ranges, so they are selected one at a time.

View as table
YearIndex of dissimilarity (D)Isolation indexInteraction with Koreans
20140.9110.0020.958
20150.8930.0030.954
20160.8830.0020.959
20170.8660.0010.968
20180.8120.0000.970
20190.7660.0000.968
20200.7770.0000.972
20210.7250.0000.970
20220.7090.0000.967
20230.7040.0000.963
20240.6990.0000.963
20250.7130.0000.957
Table 6.Norway nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Norwegian85.6
Polish1.9
Arabic1.0
Lithuanian0.8
Somali0.7
Swedish0.6
Urdu0.6
English0.5

Source: Ethnologue 24th edition, first-language shares by country.

Note: the estimated demand on the language page is this share multiplied by the registered foreign population of each nationality. Shares below 0.5% are not listed, and a person who speaks more than one language is not distinguished.

Figure 5.By province, Norway nationality, 2025Unit: persons
2025

Count range

    Note: The boundaries are shapes simplified for display and are drawn as pen lines. The fill values are the provincial totals from the yearbook and do not depend on the shapes.

    Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by nationality and district), summed to the province level.

    View as table
    ProvinceNorway NationalityShare of national
    Seoul19159.1
    Busan4714.6
    Gyeongsangnam-do247.4
    Gyeonggi-do165.0
    Incheon92.8
    Daejeon82.5
    Ulsan72.2
    Jeollanam-do61.9
    Gangwon-do30.9
    Gyeongsangbuk-do30.9
    Jeju-do30.9
    Daegu20.6
    Chungcheongnam-do20.6
    Jeollabuk-do10.3
    Chungcheongbuk-do10.3