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

Sweden

People registered with Sweden nationality number 569, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 66 in size. Compared with 413 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 37.8%. They live in 95 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Seodaemun-gu with 43, Seoul Yongsan-gu with 42, and Seoul Dongdaemun-gu with 40. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.569, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.961. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 18.7, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Europe. The largest age group is 20-24 at 19.7%, and men are 49.7%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Swedish at 84% and Arabic at 3.2%.

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
IndicatorsSwedenAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners5691,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence9525038.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.5690.280rank 55 of 107
Isolation index0.00010.045rank 54 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9610.955rank 37 of 107
ContinentEurope48,565 (3.0% of the total)1.2% 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.Sweden 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
YearSwedenVietnam
200623252,157
200724167,197
200826179,848
200923986,166
201026198,225
2011336110,564
2012356114,211
2013383113,843
2014439122,571
2015413128,042
2016427137,769
2017378151,385
2018398170,707
2019450187,334
2020318181,415
2021442178,928
2022576196,883
2023579227,930
2024550261,581
2025569293,907
Table 2.Sweden nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictSweden NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Seodaemun-gu430.3
2Seoul Yongsan-gu420.3
3Seoul Dongdaemun-gu400.2
4Seoul Mapo-gu380.3
5Seoul Seongbuk-gu270.2
6Seoul Gwangjin-gu200.1
7Seoul Gangnam-gu190.3
8Seoul Gwanak-gu180.1
9Seoul Jung-gu160.2
10Incheon Yeonsu-gu150.1

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

Note: Nationwide, Sweden 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
RankDistrictSweden NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu4218.70.0
2Seoul Seodaemun-gu4312.90.0
3Seoul Jung-gu1612.20.0
4Seoul Dongdaemun-gu4010.40.0
5Seoul Mapo-gu389.60.0
6Seoul Jongno-gu127.90.0
7Seoul Seongbuk-gu275.70.0
8Seoul Gwangjin-gu205.40.0
9Daegu Gunwi-gun14.00.0
10Seoul Seongdong-gu123.90.0

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 Sweden nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Student(D2)18332.2
Marriage Migration(F6)11620.4
Working Holiday(H1)508.8
Other statuses(ETC)407.0
General Trainee(D4)396.9
Specially Designated Activities(E7)284.9
Dependent Family(F3)223.9
Permanent Residence(F5)203.5
Other statuses7112.5

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 569, the whole of the Sweden nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-44022183.0
5-94422223.3
10-144421233.3
15-194215273.1
20-2426610616019.7
25-292188213616.1
30-342111248715.6
35-3912376479.1
40-447143285.3
45-496530354.8
50-546035254.4
55-596334294.7
60+10562437.8

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 1,352 rather than the 569 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
200812.30.00.06.12.3
200913.80.00.010.04.2
201019.20.00.09.63.8
201121.10.03.311.36.5
201220.54.50.012.69.6
201321.15.52.910.211.2
201423.37.12.58.513.6
201523.07.83.98.113.5
201628.08.33.88.113.3
201723.59.83.712.719.0
201826.110.36.512.121.4
201930.411.87.12.917.6
202015.119.50.06.015.1
202123.818.10.06.116.5
202230.016.09.25.910.8
202329.416.99.55.46.7
202432.518.77.66.75.5
202532.220.48.87.06.9
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
20140.7070.0000.967
20150.7180.0000.965
20160.6820.0000.965
20170.6940.0000.965
20180.7060.0000.961
20190.6770.0000.963
20200.6450.0000.969
20210.6440.0000.969
20220.6100.0000.966
20230.5940.0000.965
20240.5840.0000.964
20250.5690.0000.961
Table 6.Sweden nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Swedish84.0
Arabic3.2
Finnish1.3
Polish0.8
English0.8
Spanish0.7
Somali0.6

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, Sweden 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
    ProvinceSweden NationalityShare of national
    Seoul36764.5
    Gyeonggi-do9516.7
    Incheon305.3
    Busan183.2
    Daejeon173.0
    Gyeongsangnam-do71.2
    Daegu71.2
    Ulsan71.2
    Chungcheongnam-do71.2
    Gyeongsangbuk-do61.1
    Chungcheongbuk-do30.5
    Jeollanam-do20.4
    Jeollabuk-do20.4
    Jeju-do10.2