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Busan Buk-gu

Registered foreigners in Busan Buk-gu number 2,353, which is 0.9% of the resident-registration population of 262,862. That is below both the national average of 3.14% and the Busan average of 1.88%. It ranks 235 among the 250 districts. Within Busan it ranks 14 of 16. Over the past 10 years, registered foreigners rose from 1,285 in 2015 to 2,353, an increase of about 83.1%. 44 nationalities are counted, and the three largest are Vietnam at 61.9%, China at 9.3%, and Korean-Chinese at 5.1%. Shannon diversity (H) is 1.621, below the national 2.607, and ranks 244 of 250 districts. Within Busan it ranks 16. By continent of origin, diversity is 0.047, below the national 0.123. It ranks 223 of 250 districts. Southeast Asia accounts for 69.7% and East Asia for 19.3%, and the two together are 89%. Language demand estimated from the nationality composition is highest for Vietnamese, then Chinese, then Japanese.

Foreign residents (MOIS) numbered 4,669 in 2024, which is 1.8% of the resident-registration population of 265,364. Of these, 2,908 do not hold Republic of Korea nationality, 619 have acquired nationality, and 1,142 are children of foreign residents. By type, other foreigners number 1,063, International studentss 945, Marriage migrants 514, and overseas Koreans with foreign nationality 205. Children of foreign residents number 1,142, which ranks 111 among 252 districts and is 24.5% of foreign residents in this district. Among the 2,353 people with a known status of stay, the most common are General Trainee (D4) with 629 people at 26.7%, Student (D2) with 604 at 25.7%, and Marriage Migration (F6) with 461 at 19.6%. Organizations that support immigrants number 3 in this district, or 12.7 per 10,000 registered foreigners.

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy 2025 (registered foreigners by district, by nationality, and by status of stay), MOIS Status of Foreign Residents in Local Governments 2024, MOIS Resident Registration Population Statistics 2025. The diversity indices and location quotients were calculated from the open dataset. The list of support organizations was compiled by this site. DOI 10.3886/E249944

Table 1.Key indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: persons, %, index
2025
IndicatorsBuk-guBusanNationalVs national
Registered foreigners2,35360,9291,604,920National total: 0.1%
Foreign share0.901.883.140.29×
Shannon diversity (H)1.6212.5192.6070.62×
Nationalities44148192National total: 22.9%

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by district), MOIS Resident Registration Population Statistics.

Note: H is the Shannon diversity index. The number of nationalities is counted from the district-by-nationality table in all three columns: the province value is the union over that province's districts and the national value is the union over the 250 districts. The yearbook began listing every nationality at the district level in 2014, so counts before that year are cut to the top 19 plus other. The national value is the sum of the 250 districts and equals the yearbook's national total.

Figure 1.Foreign share over time, 2008–2025Unit: %

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook each year.

View as table
YearBuk-guBusanNational
20080.460.881.72
20120.370.991.83
20160.521.202.25
20200.721.192.21
20250.901.883.14
Figure 2.Resident population, 2008–2025Unit: 2008=100

Source: MOIS Resident Registration Population Statistics each year.

Note: this is the denominator behind the share in Figure 1. It counts Korean residents on the resident registration and does not include registered foreigners.

View as table
YearResident populationIndexRegistered foreignersForeign share
2008318,859100.01,4690.46
2009314,22798.51,3790.44
2010312,21897.91,3350.43
2011307,98896.61,2510.41
2012312,93798.11,1480.37
2013309,71997.11,1610.37
2014306,97496.31,2410.40
2015310,48497.41,2850.41
2016310,20297.31,6020.52
2017302,92495.01,8290.60
2018296,95293.12,3140.78
2019291,13291.32,2800.78
2020283,95289.12,0500.72
2021283,21188.81,8870.67
2022278,85787.51,8040.65
2023273,59685.81,8960.69
2024267,69284.02,1150.79
2025262,86282.42,3530.90
Table 2.Registered foreigners by nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
NationalityRegistered foreignersBuk-gu ShareBusanNational
Vietnam1,45761.928.618.3
China2199.313.914.1
Korean-Chinese1215.13.115.6
Nepal743.16.35.6
Japan703.02.71.8
Philippines582.53.73.4
United States401.72.22.3
Myanmar391.74.03.6
Thailand381.61.22.9
Uzbekistan311.34.24.3

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

Note: Korean-Chinese and China together come to 59.6%. Busan and the national columns give the share of that nationality among registered foreigners in each area.

Table 3.Top 10 languages by estimated demand, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankLanguageEstimated countShare
1Vietnamese1,24461.3
2Chinese25812.7
3Japanese693.4
4Tagalog/Filipino512.5
5English502.5
6Khmer452.2
7Thai422.1
8Nepali381.9
9Tày281.4
10Burmese251.2

Source: An estimate that applies the first-language shares of Ethnologue first-language shares, with Korean excluded.

Note: Only the top 20 languages are calculated for this district, so the shares are shares within those 20.

Table 4.Registered foreigners by status of stay, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryRegistered foreignersBuk-gu ShareNational
General Trainee(D4)62926.7-
Student(D2)60425.7-
Marriage Migration(F6)46119.6-
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)1737.4-
Permanent Residence(F5)1536.5-
Non-professional Employment(E9)482.0-
Job Seeker(D10)472.0-
Dependent Family(F3)462.0-
Other statuses1928.2-

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

Note: The national column is the share the same status holds among registered foreigners nationwide in that year. Status is known for all 2,353 registered foreigners.

Table 5.Types of foreign residents, 2024Unit: persons, %
2024
TypePersonsShare
Other foreigners1,06322.8
International students94520.2
Marriage migrant51411.0
Overseas Koreans2054.4
Migrant workers1813.9

Source: MOIS Status of Foreign Residents in Local Governments 2024.

Note: Only this table follows the MOIS count, which totals 4,669, and it covers a different population from the 2,115 registered foreigners MOJ counted the same year. Adding the two counts the same people twice.

Figure 3.Composition of foreign residents by type over timeUnit: %

Source: MOIS Status of Foreign Residents in Local Governments each year.

Note: The share of each type among foreign residents in this district in that year. Table 5 gives counts for a single year and this figure gives the composition year by year. Values can break in years when district boundaries changed. Types are set by dividing the work, study, and marriage shares among foreign residents without Korean nationality by the national benchmark (38%, 16%, 15%).

View as table
Year
20080.015.225.117.315.6
20092.520.223.713.99.7
20102.717.520.412.99.6
20112.615.023.410.58.2
20123.613.121.77.09.8
20135.311.719.05.310.2
20146.810.518.53.211.9
20157.610.617.05.012.2
20164.56.815.218.516.2
20174.45.213.119.617.6
20183.74.711.326.120.6
20193.43.810.924.624.2
20204.33.711.121.224.6
20214.23.411.319.224.0
20224.53.111.418.024.0
20233.83.010.818.424.8
20244.43.911.020.222.8
Table 6.Busan Buk-gu indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: index, rank
2025
IndicatorsThis district Busan AverageNationalRank
1.6212.5192.607244 / 250
0.5410.8410.87245 / 250
0.40.1260.0994 / 250
0.0470.0920.123223 / 250
0.91.883.14235 / 250
0.0650.1380.216238 / 250

Source: Open dataset, indicators calculated from it.

Note: Shannon diversity (H) measures how evenly nationalities are mixed, and a higher value means several nationalities of similar size. HHI moves the other way and rises as one or two nationalities dominate. Evenness rescales H to a range of 0 to 1. The rank is the position among the 250 districts ordered from the largest. The province column treats the whole province as one unit. It differs from the mean of the district values.

Figure 4.Indicators over time, 2008–2025Unit: Index
Indicators

Source: Open dataset, indicators calculated from it.

Note: This district, its province, and the national value share one axis. The province and national values are for the same year. Values can break in years when district boundaries changed.

View as table
Year Buk-guBusanNational
20081.4122.0251.715
20091.9552.3682.136
20102.0352.3752.173
20112.0082.4252.181
20121.9922.442.286
20132.0192.4642.322
20141.9682.4792.31
20151.9362.4772.325
20161.7892.4712.381
20171.6382.4462.421
20181.4862.4562.42
20191.4242.4632.445
20201.4512.4582.464
20211.4982.4742.491
20221.5412.5092.552
20231.62.5292.586
20241.6162.5312.604
20251.6212.5192.607
Table 7.Continent of origin, composition and concentration, 2025Unit: %
2025
ContinentShare
Southeast Asia69.7
East Asia19.3
South Asia4.5
Other3.0
North America1.7
Central Asia1.4
Europe0.5

Source: Open dataset, indicators calculated from it.

Note: No nationality accounts for 30% or more of the foreigners in this district. The nationalities counted number 44.

Table 9.Multicultural marriages, 2014–2024Unit: cases, %
YearMulticulturalAll marriagesBuk-gu ShareBusanNational
20141071,5736.86.48.0
2015881,6715.36.17.4
2016811,6854.86.37.7
2017881,3756.46.68.3
2018901,2597.17.69.2
2019831,1017.58.610.3
2020501,0224.95.67.6
2021459804.65.57.2
2022499904.97.09.1
2023618786.98.410.6
2024629346.67.99.6

Source: Statistics Korea, Vital Statistics of Multicultural Families.

Note: a marriage counts as multicultural when one spouse is a foreign national or a naturalized Korean. Statistics Korea does not split the wards of a large city, so a ward carries the value for the city named in the column header.

Table 10.General indicators for the areaUnit: 10,000 KRW, %, persons
IndicatorsBuk-guBusanNational
Average wage, 20233,7243,9314,344
Share aged 65 and over, 202423.423.920.0
Fiscal independence, 202410.745.143.3
Jobs per 1,000 residents, 2024242479501
Share of jobs in manufacturing, 20243.213.516.2

Source: NTS National Tax Statistics, year-end wage settlement by district; Statistics Korea e-Local Indicators (share aged 65 and over, fiscal independence, jobs per 1,000 residents, manufacturing jobs).

Note: neither agency splits the wards of a large city, so a ward carries the value for the city named in the column header.

Table 11.Immigrant support organizations, count and density, 2026Unit: count
ScopeOrganizationsor, per 10,000 registered foreigners,
Buk-gu312.7
Busan7612.5
National1,4739.2

Source: List of immigrant support organizations compiled by this site.

Note: a count of organizations is not a measure of how much service is provided, and the size and scope of each organization are not in this list.

Table 12.Busan Buk-gu immigrant support organizations, 2026

Source: List of immigrant support organizations compiled by this site.

Note: Only organizations with an address in this district that serve people directly, that have not closed or gone dormant, and that have a website or social media account confirmed as their own are listed. An organization missing any one of the four does not appear, so one you know of may be absent. The table above counts only the categories used for the density figure, so the two numbers can differ.