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

Poland

People registered with Poland nationality number 741, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 56 in size. Compared with 351 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 111.1%. They live in 139 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Seodaemun-gu with 45, Seoul Gwanak-gu with 28, and Seoul Dongdaemun-gu with 26. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.454, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.963. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Jongno-gu at 12.7, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Europe. The largest age group is 25-29 at 23.5%, and men are 37.5%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Polish at 97.6% and Silesian at 1.4%.

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
IndicatorsPolandAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners7411,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence13925055.6% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.4540.280rank 83 of 107
Isolation index0.00000.045rank 87 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9630.955rank 21 of 107
ContinentEurope48,565 (3.0% of the total)1.5% 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.Poland 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
YearPolandVietnam
200617552,157
200719267,197
200821179,848
200922286,166
201025198,225
2011264110,564
2012287114,211
2013325113,843
2014381122,571
2015351128,042
2016383137,769
2017361151,385
2018339170,707
2019373187,334
2020323181,415
2021436178,928
2022512196,883
2023571227,930
2024654261,581
2025741293,907
Table 2.Poland nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictPoland NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Seodaemun-gu450.3
2Seoul Gwanak-gu280.1
3Seoul Dongdaemun-gu260.1
4Seoul Jongno-gu250.2
5Seoul Mapo-gu240.2
6Seoul Yongsan-gu230.2
7Ulsan Ulju-gun220.2
8Daegu Dalseo-gu210.2
9Seoul Seongbuk-gu200.1
10Seoul Jung-gu200.2

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

Note: Nationwide, Poland nationals make up 0.1% 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
RankDistrictPoland NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Jongno-gu2512.70.0
2Seoul Jung-gu2011.80.0
3Seoul Seodaemun-gu4510.40.0
4Seoul Yongsan-gu237.90.0
5Ulsan Ulju-gun227.00.0
6Gyeongsangnam-do Sacheon-si106.40.0
7Chungcheongnam-do Gyeryong-si46.10.0
8Seoul Dongdaemun-gu265.20.0
9Seoul Mapo-gu244.70.0
10Seoul Gwanak-gu284.10.0

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 Poland nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Marriage Migration(F6)19926.9
Student(D2)18825.4
Other statuses(ETC)628.4
Working Holiday(H1)557.4
General Trainee(D4)375.0
Arts & Entertainment(E6)263.5
Dependent Family(F3)223.0
Residential(F2)212.8
Other statuses13117.7

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 741, the whole of the Poland nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-42110111.7
5-9231581.8
10-14248161.9
15-195521344.4
20-242808319722.3
25-292958720823.5
30-341664711913.2
35-3912044769.5
40-448751366.9
45-497738396.1
50-544022183.2
55-5916971.3
60+5337164.2

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 1,257 rather than the 741 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
20080.015.610.90.05.7
20090.016.710.40.03.2
20100.019.910.00.02.8
20110.024.211.00.03.8
20125.619.916.40.04.2
20138.621.213.80.05.2
20148.121.312.30.05.2
201510.327.315.80.03.7
201612.126.115.00.00.0
201715.524.115.20.03.6
201820.126.520.90.04.4
201920.425.720.97.84.3
202027.616.76.80.04.3
202124.825.55.70.06.4
202224.825.85.50.05.9
202324.724.55.88.83.5
202426.325.27.07.34.1
202526.925.48.47.45.0
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
20140.6370.0000.970
20150.6230.0000.970
20160.5910.0000.970
20170.5940.0000.973
20180.5650.0000.969
20190.5440.0000.967
20200.5140.0000.972
20210.5130.0000.970
20220.5090.0000.969
20230.5060.0000.967
20240.4780.0000.964
20250.4540.0000.963
Table 6.Poland nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Polish97.6
Silesian1.4

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, Poland 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
    ProvincePoland NationalityShare of national
    Seoul33244.8
    Gyeonggi-do13418.1
    Daegu425.7
    Incheon354.7
    Gyeongsangnam-do334.5
    Busan334.5
    Ulsan314.2
    Daejeon304.0
    Chungcheongnam-do162.2
    Chungcheongbuk-do121.6
    Jeollabuk-do111.5
    Gyeongsangbuk-do81.1
    Gangwon-do70.9
    Jeju-do60.8
    Sejong50.7
    Jeollanam-do40.5
    Gwangju20.3