Registered foreigners in Busan Seo-gu number 2,981, which is 2.93% of the resident-registration population of 101,892. That is between the national average of 3.14% and the Busan average of 1.88%. It ranks 114 among the 250 districts. Within Busan it ranks 5 of 16. Over the past 10 years, registered foreigners rose from 1,465 in 2015 to 2,981, an increase of about 103.5%. 52 nationalities are counted, and the three largest are Vietnam at 48.4%, Indonesia at 18.4%, and China at 6.9%. Shannon diversity (H) is 1.889, below the national 2.607, and ranks 223 of 250 districts. Within Busan it ranks 15. By continent of origin, diversity is 0.132, above the national 0.123. It ranks 102 of 250 districts. Southeast Asia accounts for 73.1% and East Asia for 13.4%, and the two together are 86.5%. The location quotient (LQ) for Vietnam is 2.5, and this one nationality is 48.4% of the foreigners in the district. Language demand estimated from the nationality composition is highest for Vietnamese, then Indonesian, then Chinese.
Foreign residents (MOIS) numbered 3,922 in 2024, which is 3.8% of the resident-registration population of 103,413. Of these, 3,249 do not hold Republic of Korea nationality, 283 have acquired nationality, and 390 are children of foreign residents. By type, International studentss number 1,040, other foreigners 955, foreign workers 870, and Marriage migrants 228. Children of foreign residents number 390, which ranks 209 among 252 districts and is 9.9% of foreign residents in this district. Among the 2,981 people with a known status of stay, the most common are Student (D2) with 785 people at 26.3%, E10 (E10) with 707 at 23.7%, and General Trainee (D4) with 542 at 18.2%. Organizations that support immigrants number 3 in this district, or 10.1 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
| Indicators | Seo-gu | Busan | National | Vs national |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registered foreigners | 2,981 | 60,929 | 1,604,920 | National total: 0.2% |
| Foreign share | 2.93 | 1.88 | 3.14 | 0.93× |
| Shannon diversity (H) | 1.889 | 2.519 | 2.607 | 0.72× |
| Nationalities | 52 | 148 | 192 | National total: 27.1% |
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.
Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook each year.
| Year | Seo-gu | Busan | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.79 | 0.88 | 1.72 |
| 2012 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 1.83 |
| 2016 | 1.40 | 1.20 | 2.25 |
| 2020 | 1.56 | 1.19 | 2.21 |
| 2025 | 2.93 | 1.88 | 3.14 |
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.
| Year | Resident population | Index | Registered foreigners | Foreign share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 129,385 | 100.0 | 1,017 | 0.79 |
| 2009 | 125,785 | 97.2 | 1,026 | 0.82 |
| 2010 | 126,040 | 97.4 | 1,028 | 0.82 |
| 2011 | 123,718 | 95.6 | 1,106 | 0.89 |
| 2012 | 120,828 | 93.4 | 1,212 | 1.00 |
| 2013 | 118,783 | 91.8 | 1,261 | 1.06 |
| 2014 | 118,115 | 91.3 | 1,391 | 1.18 |
| 2015 | 115,963 | 89.6 | 1,465 | 1.26 |
| 2016 | 112,973 | 87.3 | 1,580 | 1.40 |
| 2017 | 110,039 | 85.0 | 1,673 | 1.52 |
| 2018 | 110,534 | 85.4 | 1,843 | 1.67 |
| 2019 | 108,229 | 83.6 | 1,877 | 1.73 |
| 2020 | 108,135 | 83.6 | 1,691 | 1.56 |
| 2021 | 105,164 | 81.3 | 1,766 | 1.68 |
| 2022 | 105,192 | 81.3 | 1,983 | 1.89 |
| 2023 | 104,089 | 80.4 | 2,348 | 2.26 |
| 2024 | 103,188 | 79.8 | 2,716 | 2.63 |
| 2025 | 101,892 | 78.8 | 2,981 | 2.93 |
| Nationality | Registered foreigners | Seo-gu Share | Busan | National | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnam | 1,442 | 48.4 | 28.6 | 18.3 | |
| Indonesia | 549 | 18.4 | 6.7 | 3.9 | |
| China | 205 | 6.9 | 13.9 | 14.1 | |
| Myanmar | 87 | 2.9 | 4.0 | 3.6 | |
| Nepal | 72 | 2.4 | 6.3 | 5.6 | |
| Russia | 72 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 1.4 | |
| Taiwan | 69 | 2.3 | 2.0 | 1.1 | |
| Uzbekistan | 68 | 2.3 | 4.2 | 4.3 | |
| Cambodia | 60 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 4.1 | |
| Korean-Chinese | 60 | 2.0 | 3.1 | 15.6 |
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.
| Rank | Language | Estimated count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vietnamese | 1,232 | 49.3 | |
| 2 | Indonesian | 385 | 15.4 | |
| 3 | Chinese | 295 | 11.8 | |
| 4 | Russian | 89 | 3.5 | |
| 5 | Khmer | 78 | 3.1 | |
| 6 | Burmese | 55 | 2.2 | |
| 7 | Uzbek | 50 | 2.0 | |
| 8 | Japanese | 49 | 2.0 | |
| 9 | Nepali | 38 | 1.5 | |
| 10 | English | 30 | 1.2 |
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.
| Visa category | Registered foreigners | Seo-gu Share | National | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Student(D2) | 785 | 26.3 | - | |
| Crew Employment(E10) | 707 | 23.7 | - | |
| General Trainee(D4) | 542 | 18.2 | - | |
| Marriage Migration(F6) | 205 | 6.9 | - | |
| Permanent Residence(F5) | 168 | 5.6 | - | |
| Non-professional Employment(E9) | 134 | 4.5 | - | |
| Residential(F2) | 101 | 3.4 | - | |
| Dependent Family(F3) | 70 | 2.3 | - | |
| Other statuses | 269 | 9.0 | - |
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 2,981 registered foreigners.
| Type | Persons | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| International students | 1,040 | 26.5 | |
| Other foreigners | 955 | 24.3 | |
| Migrant workers | 870 | 22.2 | |
| Marriage migrant | 228 | 5.8 | |
| Overseas Koreans | 156 | 4.0 |
Source: MOIS Status of Foreign Residents in Local Governments 2024.
Note: Only this table follows the MOIS count, which totals 3,922, and it covers a different population from the 2,716 registered foreigners MOJ counted the same year. Adding the two counts the same people twice.
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%).
| Year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.0 | 19.8 | 33.3 | 1.5 | 26.1 |
| 2009 | 4.3 | 38.0 | 15.8 | 2.1 | 17.0 |
| 2010 | 4.3 | 38.0 | 15.6 | 2.2 | 15.8 |
| 2011 | 5.7 | 34.8 | 16.6 | 2.2 | 13.9 |
| 2012 | 6.7 | 37.8 | 14.7 | 1.8 | 13.3 |
| 2013 | 7.2 | 38.1 | 13.9 | 1.7 | 13.9 |
| 2014 | 7.7 | 37.1 | 12.4 | 1.6 | 14.5 |
| 2015 | 8.1 | 40.7 | 11.5 | 1.6 | 14.0 |
| 2016 | 5.1 | 40.1 | 10.7 | 3.8 | 18.4 |
| 2017 | 5.7 | 36.5 | 9.8 | 6.3 | 20.2 |
| 2018 | 4.9 | 34.6 | 8.7 | 6.5 | 25.9 |
| 2019 | 4.7 | 29.9 | 7.8 | 10.6 | 28.7 |
| 2020 | 5.3 | 28.9 | 7.8 | 11.3 | 26.2 |
| 2021 | 5.2 | 27.9 | 7.9 | 14.2 | 24.6 |
| 2022 | 4.7 | 26.9 | 7.1 | 16.4 | 24.8 |
| 2023 | 4.5 | 24.0 | 6.6 | 19.8 | 26.6 |
| 2024 | 4.0 | 22.2 | 5.8 | 26.5 | 24.3 |
| Indicators | This district | Busan Average | National | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.889 | 2.519 | 2.607 | 223 / 250 | |
| 0.631 | 0.841 | 0.87 | 228 / 250 | |
| 0.278 | 0.126 | 0.099 | 17 / 250 | |
| 0.132 | 0.092 | 0.123 | 102 / 250 | |
| 2.93 | 1.88 | 3.14 | 114 / 250 | |
| 0.183 | 0.138 | 0.216 | 121 / 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.
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.
| Year | Seo-gu | Busan | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1.784 | 2.025 | 1.715 |
| 2009 | 2.081 | 2.368 | 2.136 |
| 2010 | 2.032 | 2.375 | 2.173 |
| 2011 | 2.075 | 2.425 | 2.181 |
| 2012 | 2.077 | 2.44 | 2.286 |
| 2013 | 2.061 | 2.464 | 2.322 |
| 2014 | 2.055 | 2.479 | 2.31 |
| 2015 | 2.044 | 2.477 | 2.325 |
| 2016 | 2.119 | 2.471 | 2.381 |
| 2017 | 2.086 | 2.446 | 2.421 |
| 2018 | 2.13 | 2.456 | 2.42 |
| 2019 | 2.034 | 2.463 | 2.445 |
| 2020 | 1.991 | 2.458 | 2.464 |
| 2021 | 1.998 | 2.474 | 2.491 |
| 2022 | 1.963 | 2.509 | 2.552 |
| 2023 | 1.924 | 2.529 | 2.586 |
| 2024 | 1.855 | 2.531 | 2.604 |
| 2025 | 1.889 | 2.519 | 2.607 |
| Continent | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Southeast Asia | 73.1 | |
| East Asia | 13.4 | |
| South Asia | 4.2 | |
| Other | 3.5 | |
| Central Asia | 2.7 | |
| Europe | 2.4 | |
| North America | 0.6 |
Source: Open dataset, indicators calculated from it.
Note: One nationality holds 30% or more of the foreigners in this district. Vietnam 48.4%, location quotient 2.5. The nationalities counted number 52.
| District | Registered foreigners | Share of population |
|---|
Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook and Resident Registration Population Statistics. Select a district to open its report.
| Year | Multicultural | All marriages | Seo-gu Share | Busan | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 38 | 567 | 6.7 | 6.4 | 8.0 |
| 2015 | 47 | 568 | 8.3 | 6.1 | 7.4 |
| 2016 | 44 | 484 | 9.1 | 6.3 | 7.7 |
| 2017 | 35 | 442 | 7.9 | 6.6 | 8.3 |
| 2018 | 35 | 428 | 8.2 | 7.6 | 9.2 |
| 2019 | 42 | 399 | 10.5 | 8.6 | 10.3 |
| 2020 | 31 | 344 | 9.0 | 5.6 | 7.6 |
| 2021 | 16 | 353 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 7.2 |
| 2022 | 33 | 323 | 10.2 | 7.0 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 31 | 309 | 10.0 | 8.4 | 10.6 |
| 2024 | 26 | 292 | 8.9 | 7.9 | 9.6 |
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.
| Indicators | Seo-gu | Busan | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average wage, 2023 | 3,743 | 3,931 | 4,344 |
| Share aged 65 and over, 2024 | 29.5 | 23.9 | 20.0 |
| Fiscal independence, 2024 | 12.4 | 45.1 | 43.3 |
| Jobs per 1,000 residents, 2024 | 438 | 479 | 501 |
| Share of jobs in manufacturing, 2024 | 5.6 | 13.5 | 16.2 |
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.
| Scope | Organizations | or, per 10,000 registered foreigners, |
|---|---|---|
| Seo-gu | 3 | 10.1 |
| Busan | 76 | 12.5 |
| National | 1,473 | 9.2 |
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.
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.