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

United Kingdom

People registered with United Kingdom nationality number 5,254, which is 0.3% of all registered foreigners and ranks 25 in size. Compared with 5,099 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 3%. They live in 215 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Yongsan-gu with 312, Seoul Seodaemun-gu with 208, and Jeju-do Seogwipo-si with 203. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.368, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.966. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 15.2, where this nationality is 0.2% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Europe. The largest age group is 30-34 at 15.5%, and men are 54.8%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are English at 92.3% and Polish at 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
2025
IndicatorsUnited KingdomAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners5,2541,604,9200.3% of the total
Districts of residence21525086.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.3680.280rank 101 of 107
Isolation index0.00030.045rank 33 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9660.955rank 9 of 107
ContinentEurope48,565 (3.0% of the total)10.8% 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.United Kingdom 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
YearUnited KingdomVietnam
20063,01252,157
20073,23567,197
20083,34679,848
20093,84086,166
20104,13998,225
20114,755110,564
20124,964114,211
20135,508113,843
20145,390122,571
20155,099128,042
20164,735137,769
20174,238151,385
20184,244170,707
20194,426187,334
20204,230181,415
20214,723178,928
20225,205196,883
20235,343227,930
20245,228261,581
20255,254293,907
Table 2.United Kingdom nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictUnited Kingdom NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu3122.4
2Seoul Seodaemun-gu2081.2
3Jeju-do Seogwipo-si2032.0
4Seoul Gangnam-gu1853.0
5Seoul Mapo-gu1721.5
6Seoul Songpa-gu1392.2
7Seoul Gwanak-gu1280.6
8Seoul Jung-gu1251.2
9Incheon Yeonsu-gu1250.7
10Seoul Seocho-gu1242.5

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

Note: Nationwide, United Kingdom nationals make up 0.3% 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
RankDistrictUnited Kingdom NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu31215.20.2
2Jeju-do Seogwipo-si20311.10.1
3Seoul Jung-gu12510.40.1
4Seoul Seodaemun-gu2086.80.1
5Seoul Jongno-gu755.40.1
6Seoul Mapo-gu1724.70.0
7Seoul Gangnam-gu1853.30.0
8Busan Suyeong-gu543.10.0
9Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si733.10.0
10Ulsan Dong-gu463.00.0

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 United Kingdom nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Foreign Language Instructor(E2)1,59830.4
Marriage Migration(F6)1,40026.6
Specially Designated Activities(E7)3737.1
Student(D2)3196.1
Permanent Residence(F5)2835.4
Residential(F2)2444.6
Dependent Family(F3)2394.5
Other statuses(ETC)1803.4
Other statuses61811.8

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 5,254, the whole of the United Kingdom nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-419199922.1
5-92921691233.2
10-142861491373.1
15-192541351192.8
20-248193055148.9
25-291,40252487815.2
30-341,43269373915.5
35-391,07570237311.7
40-4497469328110.6
45-497555142418.2
50-545503282226.0
55-594462781684.8
60+7514682838.1

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 9,227 rather than the 5,254 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
200849.10.04.90.00.0
200951.70.04.30.00.0
201051.10.05.00.01.9
201151.80.06.10.02.4
201247.87.36.70.02.9
201340.19.66.80.02.9
201436.011.06.92.43.2
201533.612.57.63.03.5
201635.114.68.93.63.9
201736.017.68.94.64.6
201835.218.99.45.24.7
201935.219.98.65.54.7
202036.422.88.32.95.0
202135.822.48.25.84.7
202237.821.97.76.64.5
202336.522.87.96.24.5
202433.224.97.86.25.0
202530.426.67.16.15.4
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
20140.4410.0010.971
20150.4400.0010.970
20160.4240.0010.970
20170.3870.0000.972
20180.3810.0000.971
20190.3790.0000.970
20200.3550.0000.973
20210.3530.0000.974
20220.3510.0000.972
20230.3610.0000.969
20240.3650.0000.967
20250.3680.0000.966
Table 6.United Kingdom nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
English92.3
Polish1.0
Welsh0.9
Sylheti0.8

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, United Kingdom 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
    ProvinceUnited Kingdom NationalityShare of national
    Seoul2,26243.1
    Gyeonggi-do1,04119.8
    Busan3226.1
    Incheon2715.2
    Jeju-do2574.9
    Gyeongsangnam-do1733.3
    Daegu1452.8
    Daejeon1282.4
    Ulsan1042.0
    Gyeongsangbuk-do951.8
    Chungcheongnam-do911.7
    Gangwon-do771.5
    Gwangju701.3
    Jeollanam-do651.2
    Jeollabuk-do601.1
    Chungcheongbuk-do531.0
    Sejong400.8