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

Romania

People registered with Romania nationality number 332, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 77 in size. Compared with 238 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 39.5%. They live in 93 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Yongsan-gu with 32, Ulsan Dong-gu with 21, and Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si with 15. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.52, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.962. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 24.4, 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 17%, and men are 36.9%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Romanian at 91.1% and Hungarian at 6.3%.

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
IndicatorsRomaniaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners3321,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence9325037.2% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.5200.280rank 69 of 107
Isolation index0.00000.045rank 87 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9620.955rank 25 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.Romania 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
YearRomaniaVietnam
200641952,157
200729267,197
200820079,848
200917986,166
201019098,225
2011191110,564
2012206114,211
2013265113,843
2014244122,571
2015238128,042
2016254137,769
2017232151,385
2018205170,707
2019189187,334
2020182181,415
2021232178,928
2022266196,883
2023288227,930
2024292261,581
2025332293,907
Table 2.Romania nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictRomania NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu320.2
2Ulsan Dong-gu210.2
3Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si150.1
4Seoul Mapo-gu150.1
5Seoul Seodaemun-gu140.1
6Seoul Seongbuk-gu130.1
7Seoul Gwanak-gu110.1
8Incheon Yeonsu-gu110.1
9Seoul Dongdaemun-gu100.0
10Jeollanam-do Mokpo-si80.2

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

Note: Nationwide, Romania 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
RankDistrictRomania NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu3224.40.0
2Ulsan Dong-gu2121.70.0
3Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si1510.00.0
4Seoul Seodaemun-gu147.20.0
5Seoul Mapo-gu156.50.0
6Jeollanam-do Mokpo-si86.10.0
7Seoul Seongbuk-gu134.70.0
8Gyeongsangbuk-do Yeongdeok-gun14.70.0
9Seoul Dongdaemun-gu104.50.0
10Incheon Yeonsu-gu114.10.0

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 Romania nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Marriage Migration(F6)7422.3
Student(D2)6519.6
Other statuses(ETC)3811.4
Dependent Family(F3)319.3
Trade Management(D9)288.4
Permanent Residence(F5)206.0
General Trainee(D4)195.7
Specially Designated Activities(E7)123.6
Other statuses4513.6

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 332, the whole of the Romania nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-411651.9
5-98441.4
10-14122102.1
15-19176113.0
20-2488266215.3
25-2998306817.0
30-3484236114.6
35-3983255814.4
40-445624329.7
45-493517186.1
50-543720176.4
55-59201193.5
60+261884.5

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 575 rather than the 332 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
20080.017.05.523.531.0
20090.017.33.925.127.4
20100.014.25.821.132.1
20110.011.06.827.233.5
20124.914.67.825.733.5
20135.710.68.327.933.2
20147.415.610.725.025.8
201510.119.710.920.621.0
201610.319.011.923.718.2
201712.519.814.219.015.9
201817.121.013.711.713.7
201922.820.113.27.412.2
202026.414.84.46.611.5
202123.718.54.39.113.4
202221.420.38.69.014.3
202322.217.48.37.615.3
202423.319.59.27.513.0
202522.319.611.49.38.4
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
20140.6880.0000.966
20150.6290.0000.968
20160.6570.0000.967
20170.6890.0000.970
20180.6390.0000.970
20190.5810.0000.972
20200.5590.0000.977
20210.5660.0000.976
20220.5320.0000.973
20230.5540.0000.965
20240.5460.0000.961
20250.5200.0000.962
Table 6.Romania nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Romanian91.1
Hungarian6.3
Romani1.2

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, Romania 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
    ProvinceRomania NationalityShare of national
    Seoul15245.8
    Gyeonggi-do4814.5
    Ulsan247.2
    Incheon226.6
    Gyeongsangnam-do175.1
    Daejeon113.3
    Daegu103.0
    Busan103.0
    Jeollanam-do103.0
    Gwangju72.1
    Gyeongsangbuk-do61.8
    Jeollabuk-do41.2
    Chungcheongnam-do41.2
    Gangwon-do30.9
    Jeju-do20.6
    Chungcheongbuk-do20.6