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Gangwon-do

Gangwon-do has 29,495 registered foreign residents, 1.96% of its resident-registration population of 1,508,500. That is below the national average of 3.14% and ranks 14th among the seventeen provinces. 1.84% of all registered foreign residents in Korea live here. The share has risen from 0.98% in 2015 to 1.96%, a change of about 100.0%. 112 nationalities are counted, and the three largest are Vietnam (23.4%), China (13.9%), Nepal (11.5%). The nationality diversity index H is 2.56, 5th among the seventeen. By continent of origin the index is 0.096, 12th. Language demand estimated from nationality composition covers 45 languages and 23,980 people, the largest three being Vietnamese (24.6%), Chinese (18%), Nepali (7.3%).

On the Ministry of the Interior and Safety count, foreign residents numbered 50,652 in 2024, 3.34% of the resident-registration population of 1,517,766. By type the largest are Other foreign residents (15,168), Migrant workers (7,989), International students (6,786). Children of foreign residents number 8,819. The settlement rate is 27.8% and the settlement type is classified as University. Of the 29,495 people whose visa status is recorded, the largest categories are Student (D2) 24.5%, Non-professional Employment (E9) 21.7%, Marriage Migration (F6) 12%. Across 18 districts the largest count is in Wonju-si (5,709, 19.36% of the province) and the highest share of population is in Goseong-gun (8.12%). This province holds 40 organizations serving immigrants, 13.6 per 10,000 registered foreign residents against 7.1 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
2025
IndicatorsGangwon-doGangwon-doNationalVs national
Registered foreigners29,49501,604,920National total: 1.8%
Foreign share1.96-3.140.62×
Shannon diversity (H)2.560-2.6070.98×
Nationalities112---

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
YearGangwon-doGangwon-doNational
20080.851.72
20120.841.83
20161.022.25
20201.122.21
20251.963.14
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
Table 2.Registered foreigners by nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
NationalityRegistered foreignersGangwon-do ShareGangwon-doNational
Vietnam6,89523.423.418.3
China4,09413.913.914.1
Nepal3,38811.511.55.6
Thailand1,5635.35.32.9
Uzbekistan1,4855.05.04.3
Cambodia1,3514.64.64.1
Indonesia1,3424.54.53.9
Philippines1,2084.14.13.4
Korean-Chinese1,1093.83.815.6
Russia8893.03.01.4
Myanmar7272.52.53.6
Bangladesh6422.22.22.0

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

Note: Korean-Chinese and China together come to 59.6%. Gangwon-do 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
1Vietnamese5,90124.6
2Chinese4,31018.0
3Nepali1,7517.3
4Thai1,4065.9
5Khmer1,3935.8
6Uzbek1,1054.6
7Russian1,0644.4
8Tagalog/Filipino1,0434.3
9Indonesian9333.9
10Hindi6612.8
11Japanese5862.4
12English4832.0

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 foreignersGangwon-do ShareNational
Student(D2)7,24124.513.7
Non-professional Employment(E9)6,39621.721.0
Marriage Migration(F6)3,54212.09.5
General Trainee(D4)2,1237.25.3
Permanent Residence(F5)1,7445.913.8
Other(G1)1,3914.73.8
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)1,3884.74.6
Seasonal Worker(E8)1,0923.72.0
Crew Employment(E10)1,0143.41.3
Specially Designated Activities(E7)8382.85.1
Dependent Family(F3)7112.44.6
Residential(F2)4451.54.2

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 29,495 registered foreigners.

Table 5.Types of foreign residents, 2024Unit: persons, %
2024
TypePersonsShare
Other foreign residents15,16829.9
Migrant workers7,98915.8
International students6,78613.4
Marriage migrants4,1188.1
Ethnic Koreans with foreign nationality2,5195.0

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

Note: Only this table follows the MOIS count, which totals 50,652, and it covers a different population from the 26,074 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
20080.029.30.015.80.0
20090.028.80.014.60.0
20100.027.60.014.20.0
20110.023.20.011.90.0
20120.024.60.010.20.0
20130.021.20.09.10.0
20140.021.40.07.80.0
20150.022.10.07.90.0
20160.022.90.08.30.0
20170.021.00.010.60.0
20180.018.90.012.20.0
20190.017.00.011.40.0
20200.015.90.010.60.0
20210.014.50.011.10.0
20220.014.90.012.30.0
20230.015.30.012.60.0
20240.015.80.013.40.0
Table 6.Gangwon-do indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: index, rank
2025
IndicatorsThis district Gangwon-do AverageNationalRank
2.56-2.6075 / 17
0.855-0.875 / 17
0.108-0.09913 / 17
0.096-0.12312 / 17
1.96-3.1414 / 17
0.144-0.21613 / 17

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 Gangwon-doGangwon-doNational
20081.831-1.715
20092.295-2.136
20102.303-2.173
20112.368-2.181
20122.433-2.286
20132.5-2.322
20142.517-2.31
20152.532-2.325
20162.562-2.381
20172.567-2.421
20182.54-2.42
20192.557-2.445
20202.568-2.464
20212.554-2.491
20222.572-2.552
20232.56-2.586
20242.562-2.604
20252.56-2.607
Table 7.Continent of origin, composition and concentration, 2025Unit: %
2025
ContinentShare
Southeast Asia45.8
East Asia22.6
South Asia16.4
Central Asia6.9
Europe3.8
Africa2.0
North America1.5
West Asia0.4
Latin America0.3
Oceania0.1

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 112.

Table 9.Multicultural marriages, 2014–2024Unit: cases, %
YearMulticulturalAll marriagesGangwon-do ShareGangwon-doNational
20145517,8767.07.08.0
20154527,9415.75.77.4
20164787,5326.36.37.7
20175197,3757.07.08.3
20185747,0748.18.19.2
20196506,8339.59.510.3
20204165,9237.07.07.6
20213175,6705.65.67.2
20224325,6327.77.79.1
20235585,56510.010.010.6
20245486,2208.88.89.6

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
IndicatorsGangwon-doGangwon-doNational
Average wage, 20233,7673,7674,344
Share aged 65 and over, 202425.425.420.0
Fiscal independence, 202425.225.243.3
Jobs per 1,000 residents, 2024495495501
Share of jobs in manufacturing, 20248.38.316.2

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,
Gangwon-do4013.6
National1,1347.1

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.Gangwon-do 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.