KIRD Korea Immigration Regional Dashboard
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Registered foreigners are counted across 192 nationalities.

Papua New Guinea

People registered with Papua New Guinea nationality number 13, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 158 in size. Compared with 21 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is a decrease of about 38.1%. They live in 6 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Yongsan-gu with 7, Seoul Jongno-gu with 2, and Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Paldal-gu with 1. The largest age group is 35-39 at 10.5%, and men are 55.3%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Enga at 7.1% and Huli at 4.7%.

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
IndicatorsPapua New GuineaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners131,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence62502.4% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)-0.280-
Isolation index-0.045-
Interaction with Koreans-0.955-
Continent---

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.Papua New Guinea 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
YearPapua New GuineaVietnam
2006152,157
2007367,197
2008279,848
2009286,166
2010398,225
20115110,564
20123114,211
20137113,843
201413122,571
201521128,042
201611137,769
20176151,385
20184170,707
20193187,334
20203181,415
20214178,928
20226196,883
202311227,930
202411261,581
202513293,907
Table 2.Papua New Guinea nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictPapua New Guinea NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu70.1
2Seoul Jongno-gu20.0
3Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Paldal-gu10.0
4Gyeongsangbuk-do Pohang-si Buk-gu10.0
5Seoul Dongdaemun-gu10.0
6Seoul Seongbuk-gu10.0

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

Note: Nationwide, Papua New Guinea nationality is 18.3% of all registered foreigners, so a district where the share among its foreigners is above this has relatively many of them.

Table 3.10 districts with the highest location quotient, 2025Unit: people, ratio, %
RankDistrictPapua New Guinea NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners

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 Papua New Guinea nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Other statuses(ETC)969.2
Job Seeker(D10)215.4
Student(D2)17.7
Dependent Family(F3)17.7

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 13, the whole of the Papua New Guinea nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-42025.3
5-92205.3
10-143217.9
15-193307.9
20-243217.9
25-293127.9
30-343127.9
35-3942210.5
40-443217.9
45-493127.9
50-543127.9
55-592205.3
60+42210.5

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 38 rather than the 13 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
20080.00.00.00.0
20090.00.00.00.0
20100.00.033.30.0
20110.00.040.00.0
20120.00.066.70.0
20130.00.071.40.0
20140.00.076.97.7
20150.00.071.44.8
20160.00.072.79.1
20170.00.083.316.7
20180.00.050.025.0
20190.00.033.333.3
202033.30.033.333.3
202125.00.050.025.0
202216.70.050.016.7
202354.50.027.39.1
202454.50.027.39.1
202569.215.47.77.7
Figure 4.Residential segregation and exposure over time, Unit: 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
Table 6.Papua New Guinea nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Enga7.1
Huli4.7
English3.5
Tok Pisin2.9
Kuanua2.8
Kuman2.7
Melpa2.4
Kamano1.9

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, Papua New Guinea 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
    ProvincePapua New Guinea NationalityShare of national
    Seoul1184.6
    Gyeonggi-do17.7
    Gyeongsangbuk-do17.7