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

Singapore

People registered with Singapore nationality number 918, which is 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 49 in size. Compared with 752 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 22.1%. They live in 124 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Mapo-gu with 64, Seoul Seodaemun-gu with 57, and Seoul Yongsan-gu with 52. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.561, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.962. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Jung-gu at 17, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Southeast Asia. The largest age group is 20-24 at 22.8%, and men are 44.4%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Chinese at 44.8% and English at 31.7%.

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
IndicatorsSingaporeAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners9181,604,9200.1% of the total
Districts of residence12425049.6% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.5610.280rank 58 of 107
Isolation index0.00010.045rank 54 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9620.955rank 24 of 107
ContinentSoutheast Asia602,559 (37.5% of the total)0.2% of those from Southeast Asia

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.Singapore 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
YearSingaporeVietnam
200621052,157
200722367,197
200829179,848
200929486,166
201041098,225
2011479110,564
2012630114,211
2013726113,843
2014786122,571
2015752128,042
2016759137,769
2017805151,385
2018769170,707
2019656187,334
2020567181,415
2021654178,928
2022799196,883
2023838227,930
2024896261,581
2025918293,907
Table 2.Singapore nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictSingapore NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Mapo-gu640.5
2Seoul Seodaemun-gu570.3
3Seoul Yongsan-gu520.4
4Seoul Dongdaemun-gu380.2
5Seoul Jung-gu360.3
6Incheon Yeonsu-gu360.2
7Seoul Seongbuk-gu350.2
8Seoul Gangnam-gu320.5
9Seoul Songpa-gu310.5
10Seoul Gwanak-gu270.1

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

Note: Nationwide, Singapore 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
RankDistrictSingapore NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Jung-gu3617.00.0
2Seoul Yongsan-gu5214.40.0
3Seoul Seodaemun-gu5710.60.0
4Seoul Mapo-gu6410.00.0
5Seoul Jongno-gu249.80.0
6Seoul Dongdaemun-gu386.10.0
7Seoul Seongdong-gu265.30.0
8Incheon Yeonsu-gu364.90.0
9Seoul Seongbuk-gu354.60.0
10Jeju-do Seogwipo-si134.00.0

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 Singapore nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Student(D2)24726.9
Marriage Migration(F6)19821.6
Specially Designated Activities(E7)818.8
Dependent Family(F3)738.0
Permanent Residence(F5)576.2
Corporate Investment(D8)566.1
General Trainee(D4)495.3
Residential(F2)475.1
Other statuses11012.0

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 918, the whole of the Singapore nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-42621301321.9
5-93931951982.9
10-144342092253.2
15-191,0524106427.8
20-243,0871,3021,78522.8
25-291,73582690912.8
30-341,36562174410.1
35-391,0855185678.0
40-447923334595.8
45-498633565076.4
50-541,0424416017.7
55-596513083434.8
60+8053694365.9

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 13,566 rather than the 918 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
20089.60.06.228.50.0
200917.30.07.522.85.1
201023.20.05.113.44.1
201128.20.07.513.20.0
201232.72.58.314.13.0
201331.13.77.213.22.6
201434.96.46.815.72.5
201535.77.47.813.73.1
201640.68.38.911.63.7
201744.39.17.88.03.6
201839.011.48.27.84.0
201923.816.510.710.14.9
202010.124.012.59.20.0
202112.122.311.39.30.0
202225.920.59.57.85.4
202328.222.010.35.36.2
202427.121.210.46.66.1
202526.921.68.88.06.2
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
20140.6570.0000.968
20150.6730.0000.964
20160.6420.0000.966
20170.6430.0000.967
20180.6220.0000.966
20190.5760.0000.967
20200.5450.0000.970
20210.5370.0000.970
20220.5410.0000.968
20230.5380.0000.965
20240.5420.0000.963
20250.5610.0000.962
Table 6.Singapore nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Chinese44.8
English31.7
Malay9.2
Cantonese3.5
Tamil2.9
Tagalog/Filipino2.4
Indonesian2.4
Bengali1.2

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, Singapore 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
    ProvinceSingapore NationalityShare of national
    Seoul55860.8
    Gyeonggi-do14716.0
    Incheon687.4
    Busan323.5
    Daejeon242.6
    Jeju-do232.5
    Gyeongsangnam-do131.4
    Chungcheongnam-do101.1
    Gangwon-do91.0
    Daegu80.9
    Gyeongsangbuk-do60.7
    Ulsan60.7
    Jeollabuk-do60.7
    Gwangju30.3
    Jeollanam-do20.2
    Chungcheongbuk-do20.2
    Sejong10.1