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Busan Gijang-gun

Registered foreigners in Busan Gijang-gun number 3,150, which is 1.8% of the resident-registration population of 174,898. That is below both the national average of 3.14% and the Busan average of 1.88%. It ranks 177 among the 250 districts. Within Busan it ranks 10 of 16. Over the past 10 years, registered foreigners rose from 2,071 in 2015 to 3,150, an increase of about 52.1%. 63 nationalities are counted, and the three largest are Vietnam at 22%, Indonesia at 12.1%, and Nepal at 8.9%. Shannon diversity (H) is 2.597, below the national 2.607, and ranks 22 of 250 districts. Within Busan it ranks 1. By continent of origin, diversity is 0.095, below the national 0.123. It ranks 149 of 250 districts. Southeast Asia accounts for 52.2% and South Asia for 19.9%, and the two together are 72.1%. Language demand estimated from the nationality composition is highest for Vietnamese, then Indonesian, then Chinese.

Foreign residents (MOIS) numbered 4,609 in 2024, which is 2.7% of the resident-registration population of 173,228. Of these, 3,370 do not hold Republic of Korea nationality, 420 have acquired nationality, and 819 are children of foreign residents. By type, foreign workers number 1,648, other foreigners 976, Marriage migrants 524, and overseas Koreans with foreign nationality 196. Children of foreign residents number 819, which ranks 152 among 252 districts and is 17.8% of foreign residents in this district. Among the 3,150 people with a known status of stay, the most common are Non-professional Employment (E9) with 1,485 people at 47.1%, Marriage Migration (F6) with 492 at 15.6%, and Specially Designated Activities (E7) with 266 at 8.4%. Organizations that support immigrants number 1 in this district, or 3.2 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
IndicatorsGijang-gunBusanNationalVs national
Registered foreigners3,15060,9291,604,920National total: 0.2%
Foreign share1.801.883.140.57×
Shannon diversity (H)2.5972.5192.6071.00×
Nationalities63148192National total: 32.8%

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
YearGijang-gunBusanNational
20081.200.881.72
20121.310.991.83
20161.321.202.25
20201.051.192.21
20251.801.883.14
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
200881,159100.09771.20
200989,384110.19961.11
2010102,557126.41,2051.17
2011108,095133.21,4001.30
2012114,566141.21,4981.31
2013132,507163.31,5531.17
2014144,748178.41,8671.29
2015153,093188.62,0711.35
2016158,527195.32,0951.32
2017161,651199.21,9981.24
2018164,864203.12,0351.23
2019164,716203.01,9631.19
2020174,545215.11,8321.05
2021177,125218.21,8011.02
2022178,614220.12,0021.12
2023178,729220.22,4351.36
2024175,626216.42,8201.61
2025174,898215.53,1501.80
Table 2.Registered foreigners by nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
NationalityRegistered foreignersGijang-gun ShareBusanNational
Vietnam69322.028.618.3
Indonesia38112.16.73.9
Nepal2798.96.35.6
China2287.213.914.1
Sri Lanka2066.52.22.3
Cambodia1575.02.64.1
Philippines1514.83.73.4
Myanmar1454.64.03.6
Thailand1163.71.22.9
Korean-Chinese1043.33.115.6

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
1Vietnamese59324.2
2Indonesian26710.9
3Chinese25310.3
4Khmer1606.5
5Nepali1455.9
6Sinhala1425.8
7Tagalog/Filipino1325.4
8Thai1064.3
9Burmese933.8
10Japanese873.6

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 foreignersGijang-gun ShareNational
Non-professional Employment(E9)1,48547.1-
Marriage Migration(F6)49215.6-
Specially Designated Activities(E7)2668.4-
Permanent Residence(F5)1625.1-
Dependent Family(F3)1444.6-
Crew Employment(E10)1394.4-
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)1073.4-
Residential(F2)692.2-
Other statuses2869.1-

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 3,150 registered foreigners.

Table 5.Types of foreign residents, 2024Unit: persons, %
2024
TypePersonsShare
Migrant workers1,64835.8
Other foreigners97621.2
Marriage migrant52411.4
Overseas Koreans1964.3
International students260.6

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

Note: Only this table follows the MOIS count, which totals 4,609, and it covers a different population from the 2,820 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
20080.080.310.41.23.5
20092.468.510.70.45.6
20102.561.611.80.48.7
20114.357.813.50.37.3
20125.957.412.00.16.3
20136.454.012.30.25.8
20146.749.512.60.26.4
20157.450.812.10.87.5
20165.544.511.20.516.5
20174.840.211.50.317.9
20184.736.310.60.523.2
20194.432.011.00.426.8
20204.829.911.90.424.3
20214.428.012.70.423.5
20224.528.512.80.722.9
20234.832.711.90.422.1
20244.335.811.40.621.2
Table 6.Busan Gijang-gun indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: index, rank
2025
IndicatorsThis district Busan AverageNationalRank
2.5972.5192.60722 / 250
0.8670.8410.8723 / 250
0.0990.1260.099220 / 250
0.0950.0920.123149 / 250
1.81.883.14177 / 250
0.1350.1380.216170 / 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 Gijang-gunBusanNational
20082.0252.0251.715
20092.4892.3682.136
20102.3922.3752.173
20112.382.4252.181
20122.3612.442.286
20132.4562.4642.322
20142.4992.4792.31
20152.5062.4772.325
20162.5312.4712.381
20172.4912.4462.421
20182.52.4562.42
20192.4972.4632.445
20202.5092.4582.464
20212.5262.4742.491
20222.562.5092.552
20232.5942.5292.586
20242.5842.5312.604
20252.5972.5192.607
Table 7.Continent of origin, composition and concentration, 2025Unit: %
2025
ContinentShare
Southeast Asia52.2
South Asia19.9
East Asia14.4
Other7.4
Central Asia3.2
Europe1.5
North America1.5

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 63.

Table 9.Multicultural marriages, 2014–2024Unit: cases, %
YearMulticulturalAll marriagesGijang-gun ShareBusanNational
2014451,0634.26.48.0
2015441,0734.16.17.4
2016509935.06.37.7
2017478455.66.68.3
2018527826.67.69.2
2019657598.68.610.3
2020247423.25.67.6
2021366585.55.57.2
2022397035.57.09.1
2023586159.48.410.6
2024546368.57.99.6

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
IndicatorsGijang-gunBusanNational
Average wage, 20233,8623,9314,344
Share aged 65 and over, 202419.523.920.0
Fiscal independence, 202427.845.143.3
Jobs per 1,000 residents, 2024487479501
Share of jobs in manufacturing, 202422.613.516.2

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,
Gijang-gun13.2
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 Gijang-gun 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.