KIRD Immigrant statistics in Korea 한국어

By region

Daejeon

Daejeon has 28,236 registered foreign residents, 1.96% of its resident-registration population of 1,440,729. That is below the national average of 3.13% and ranks 14th among the seventeen provinces. 1.77% of all registered foreign residents in Korea live here. The share has risen from 1.08% in 2015 to 1.96%, a change of about 81.5%. 138 nationalities are counted, and the three largest are Vietnam (41.2%), China (13.6%), Korean-Chinese (3.8%). The nationality diversity index H is 2.173, 16th among the seventeen. By continent of origin the index is 0.096, 13th. Language demand estimated from nationality composition covers 29 languages and 22,616 people, the largest three being Vietnamese (43.9%), Chinese (18.2%), Mongolian (4%).

On the Ministry of the Interior and Safety count, foreign residents numbered 42,043 in 2024, 2.92% of the resident-registration population of 1,439,157. By type the largest are International students (12,605), Other foreign residents (10,131), Marriage migrants (3,593). Children of foreign residents number 6,810. The settlement rate is 25.5% and the settlement type is classified as University. Of the 28,243 people whose visa status is recorded, the largest categories are Student (D2) 37.3%, General Trainee (D4) 16.8%, Marriage Migration (F6) 11.1%. Across 5 districts the largest count is in Yuseong-gu (9,145, 32.39% of the province) and the highest share of population is in Dong-gu (3.48%). This province holds 32 organizations serving immigrants, 11.3 per 10,000 registered foreign residents against 6.5 nationally.

Source: Ministry of Justice immigration statistics yearbook, Ministry of the Interior and Safety local foreign resident statistics and resident registration statistics. Diversity indices and language demand are calculated from the public dataset; support organizations are this site's own list.

Table 1.Key indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: persons, %, index
IndicatorsDaejeonDaejeonNationalVs national

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 based on the 1,601,452 people allocated to districts and differs from the national total of 1,604,725.

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

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook each year.

View as table
YearDaejeonDaejeonNational
Table 2.Registered foreigners by nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
NationalityRegistered foreignersDaejeon ShareDaejeonNational

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

Note: Korean-Chinese and China together come to 59.6%. Daejeon 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, %
RankLanguageEstimated countShare

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. They are used in setting interpretation priorities.

Table 4.Registered foreigners by status of stay, 2025Unit: persons, %
Visa categoryRegistered foreignersDaejeon ShareNational

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 37,801 people, 491 fewer than the 38,292 registered foreigners. The national distribution by status is in By status of stay.

Table 5.Types of foreign residents, 2024Unit: persons, %
TypePersonsShare

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

Note: This table alone uses the MOIS definition, so the total is 76,404 and covers a different population from the 38,292 MOJ registered foreigners. Adding the two counts the same person twice.

Table 6.Immigrant support organizations, count and density, 2026Unit: count
ScopeOrganizationsor, per 10,000 registered foreigners,

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

Note: the total number of organizations and its distribution are in Service map. A count of organizations is not a measure of how much service there is, and the size and scope of each one are not in this list.

Table 7.Daejeon 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. Table 6 counts only the categories used for the density figure, so the two numbers can differ. Organizations are ordered by the number of services they provide, and by name where that is the same. Organizations with no address on record come last. The full list and its filters are in the Service map.

Figure 2.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%).

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Year
Table 8.Daejeon indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: index, rank
IndicatorsThis district Daejeon AverageNationalRank

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 3.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 DaejeonDaejeonNational
Table 9.Continent of origin, composition and concentration, 2025Unit: %
ContinentShare

Source: Open dataset, indicators calculated from it.