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Registered foreigners are counted across 192 nationalities.

Russia

People registered with Russia nationality number 22,138, which is 1.4% of all registered foreigners and ranks 16 in size. Compared with 4,761 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 365%. They live in 232 districts, and the largest counts are Incheon Yeonsu-gu with 1,456, Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Danwon-gu with 817, and Gyeonggi-do Hwaseong-si with 736. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.423, the isolation index is 0.001, and interaction with Koreans is 0.954. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Jung-gu at 13.1, where this nationality is 0.6% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Europe. The largest age group is 25-29 at 16.5%, and men are 49.4%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Russian at 85.8% and Tatar at 3.1%.

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

Year 2025

Indicators	Russia	All registered foreigners	Relative to total
Registered foreigners	22,138	1,604,920	1.4% of the total
Districts of residence	232	250	92.8% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)	0.423	0.280	rank 87 of 107
Isolation index	0.0012	0.045	rank 21 of 107
Interaction with Koreans	0.954	0.955	rank 64 of 107
Continent	Europe	48,565 (3.0% of the total)	45.6% 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.Russia 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.

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Year	Russia	Vietnam
2006	3,731	52,157
2007	3,546	67,197
2008	3,362	79,848
2009	3,604	86,166
2010	3,863	98,225
2011	3,771	110,564
2012	3,858	114,211
2013	4,061	113,843
2014	4,365	122,571
2015	4,761	128,042
2016	6,111	137,769
2017	7,686	151,385
2018	10,289	170,707
2019	12,786	187,334
2020	12,227	181,415
2021	12,297	178,928
2022	13,969	196,883
2023	19,471	227,930
2024	22,450	261,581
2025	22,138	293,907

Table 2.Russia nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Rank	District	Russia Nationality	Share of local foreigners
1	Incheon Yeonsu-gu	1,456	7.7
2	Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Danwon-gu	817	2.1
3	Gyeonggi-do Hwaseong-si	736	1.3
4	Chungcheongnam-do Asan-si	672	2.7
5	Seoul Jung-gu	666	6.3
6	Gyeongsangnam-do Gimhae-si	638	2.3
7	Gyeongsangbuk-do Gyeongju-si	592	3.8
8	Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si	530	1.5
9	Gwangju Gwangsan-gu	512	3.2
10	Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Sangnok-gu	506	3.1

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

Note: Nationwide, Russia nationals make up 1.4% 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, %

Year 2025

Rank	District	Russia Nationality	Location quotient (LQ)	Share of local foreigners
1	Seoul Jung-gu	666	13.1	0.6
2	Jeollanam-do Yeongam-gun	233	10.8	0.5
3	Busan Jung-gu	148	9.4	0.4
4	Incheon Yeonsu-gu	1,456	8.2	0.4
5	Ulsan Dong-gu	450	7.0	0.3
6	Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Danwon-gu	817	6.5	0.3
7	Busan Dong-gu	233	6.4	0.3
8	Gyeongsangnam-do Changnyeong-gun	149	6.3	0.3
9	Gyeongsangbuk-do Gyeongju-si	592	5.6	0.2
10	Gangwon-do Gangneung-si	442	5.0	0.2

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 Russia nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Visa category	Persons	Share
Other(G1)	8,593	38.8
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)	2,983	13.5
Marriage Migration(F6)	2,263	10.2
Dependent Family(F3)	2,112	9.5
Student(D2)	1,675	7.6
General Trainee(D4)	1,008	4.6
Residential(F2)	910	4.1
Other statuses(ETC)	813	3.7
Other statuses	1,781	8.0

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 22,138, the whole of the Russia nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Age group	Total	Male	Female	Share
0-4	1,018	527	491	3.3
5-9	1,315	672	643	4.2
10-14	1,362	643	719	4.4
15-19	1,487	612	875	4.8
20-24	4,122	1,650	2,472	13.3
25-29	5,101	2,246	2,855	16.5
30-34	4,411	2,276	2,135	14.2
35-39	3,677	2,214	1,463	11.9
40-44	2,847	1,699	1,148	9.2
45-49	2,349	1,135	1,214	7.6
50-54	1,479	721	758	4.8
55-59	803	418	385	2.6
60+	1,030	493	537	3.3

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 31,001 rather than the 22,138 registered foreigners

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

Year 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
2008	0.0	9.1	0.0	16.8	7.8
2009	0.0	12.8	0.0	15.7	9.2
2010	0.0	14.7	0.0	15.1	10.9
2011	0.0	12.0	0.0	15.8	10.0
2012	0.0	11.8	11.4	16.6	8.4
2013	0.0	12.8	15.7	15.5	9.2
2014	0.0	14.5	16.0	14.6	9.7
2015	0.0	19.6	14.9	13.2	9.5
2016	6.3	30.6	12.2	9.9	8.1
2017	11.0	37.4	10.0	7.0	7.0
2018	21.4	37.7	8.7	5.1	5.2
2019	30.7	34.1	8.4	3.7	4.4
2020	29.0	33.0	9.9	3.3	3.7
2021	21.0	33.1	11.8	3.5	5.4
2022	20.2	31.9	11.9	0.0	6.0
2023	35.3	25.7	9.5	0.0	5.6
2024	41.2	18.8	9.2	5.6	6.2
2025	38.8	13.5	10.2	9.5	7.6

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.

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Year	Index of dissimilarity (D)	Isolation index	Interaction with Koreans
2014	0.419	0.000	0.973
2015	0.409	0.000	0.970
2016	0.430	0.000	0.966
2017	0.433	0.001	0.964
2018	0.446	0.001	0.961
2019	0.444	0.001	0.961
2020	0.443	0.001	0.965
2021	0.437	0.001	0.967
2022	0.433	0.001	0.964
2023	0.440	0.001	0.960
2024	0.440	0.001	0.957
2025	0.423	0.001	0.954

Table 6.Russia nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %

First language		Share
Russian		85.8
Tatar		3.1
Chechen		1.0
Bashkir		0.8
Ukrainian		0.8
Chuvash		0.8
Avar		0.5
Russian Sign Language		0.5

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, Russia nationality, 2025Unit: persons

Year 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.

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Province	Russia Nationality	Share of national
Gyeonggi-do	5,474	24.7
Seoul	3,638	16.4
Incheon	2,124	9.6
Chungcheongnam-do	1,589	7.2
Gyeongsangnam-do	1,506	6.8
Busan	1,377	6.2
Chungcheongbuk-do	1,052	4.8
Gyeongsangbuk-do	921	4.2
Gangwon-do	889	4.0
Gwangju	717	3.2
Ulsan	703	3.2
Jeollabuk-do	565	2.6
Jeollanam-do	560	2.5
Daegu	439	2.0
Daejeon	408	1.8
Jeju-do	102	0.5
Sejong	74	0.3