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Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae-gun

Registered foreigners in Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae-gun number 1,295, which is 3.18% of the resident-registration population of 40,770. That is between the national average of 3.14% and the Gyeongsangnam-do average of 3.53%. It ranks 105 among the 250 districts. Within Gyeongsangnam-do it ranks 11 of 22. Over the past 10 years, registered foreigners rose from 846 in 2015 to 1,295, an increase of about 53.1%. 32 nationalities are counted, and the three largest are Indonesia at 40.1%, Vietnam at 24.6%, and Timor-Leste at 9.1%. Shannon diversity (H) is 1.729, below the national 2.607, and ranks 238 of 250 districts. Within Gyeongsangnam-do it ranks 22. By continent of origin, diversity is 0.153, above the national 0.123. It ranks 81 of 250 districts. Southeast Asia accounts for 70.3% and Other for 16.4%, and the two together are 86.8%. The location quotient (LQ) for Indonesia is 10.5, and this one nationality is 40.1% of the foreigners in the district. Language demand estimated from the nationality composition is highest for Indonesian, then Vietnamese, then Chinese.

Foreign residents (MOIS) numbered 1,832 in 2024, which is 4.7% of the resident-registration population of 39,011. Of these, 1,370 do not hold Republic of Korea nationality, 150 have acquired nationality, and 312 are children of foreign residents. By type, foreign workers number 823, other foreigners 376, Marriage migrants 95, and overseas Koreans with foreign nationality 53. Children of foreign residents number 312, which ranks 228 among 252 districts and is 17% of foreign residents in this district. Among the 1,295 people with a known status of stay, the most common are Non-professional Employment (E9) with 591 people at 45.6%, Seasonal Worker (E8) with 268 at 20.7%, and E10 (E10) with 174 at 13.4%. Organizations that support immigrants number 1 in this district, or 7.7 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
IndicatorsNamhae-gunGyeongsangnam-doNationalVs national
Registered foreigners1,295113,1891,604,920National total: 0.1%
Foreign share3.183.533.141.01×
Shannon diversity (H)1.7292.5552.6070.66×
Nationalities32127192National total: 16.7%

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
YearNamhae-gunGyeongsangnam-doNational
20080.911.601.72
20121.401.941.83
20161.922.402.25
20201.822.012.21
20253.183.533.14
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
200850,698100.04600.91
200950,24499.15231.04
201049,32897.35611.14
201150,24299.16321.26
201248,22395.16761.40
201347,24493.27331.55
201446,63892.07641.64
201545,86590.58461.84
201645,12989.08651.92
201744,64288.18341.87
201843,99086.88291.88
201943,62286.08611.97
202042,95884.77801.82
202142,26683.47491.77
202241,57982.08832.12
202340,78080.41,0172.49
202439,83278.61,1802.96
202540,77080.41,2953.18
Table 2.Registered foreigners by nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
NationalityRegistered foreignersNamhae-gun ShareGyeongsangnam-doNational
Indonesia51940.110.03.9
Vietnam31924.625.718.3
Timor-Leste1189.10.80.3
Laos745.71.90.7
Sri Lanka695.35.42.3
China433.35.414.1
Cambodia372.96.54.1
Myanmar211.63.93.6
Japan201.51.11.8
Nepal120.97.25.6

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

Note: Korean-Chinese and China together come to 59.6%. Gyeongsangnam-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
1Indonesian36435.9
2Vietnamese27326.9
3Chinese535.3
4Sinhala484.7
5Khmer404.0
6Lao393.8
7Mambae292.8
8Japanese201.9
9Makasae181.8
10Tamil181.7

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 foreignersNamhae-gun ShareNational
Non-professional Employment(E9)59145.6-
Seasonal Worker(E8)26820.7-
Crew Employment(E10)17413.4-
Marriage Migration(F6)765.9-
Specially Designated Activities(E7)463.6-
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)393.0-
Student(D2)362.8-
Permanent Residence(F5)201.5-
Other statuses453.5-

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 1,295 registered foreigners.

Table 5.Types of foreign residents, 2024Unit: persons, %
2024
TypePersonsShare
Migrant workers82344.9
Other foreigners37620.5
Marriage migrant955.2
Overseas Koreans532.9
International students231.3

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

Note: Only this table follows the MOIS count, which totals 1,832, and it covers a different population from the 1,180 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
20080.027.432.05.65.6
20095.934.624.50.03.4
20106.836.823.10.03.9
20116.236.219.50.03.4
20125.940.516.30.03.8
20136.841.313.30.14.6
20146.543.511.80.05.4
20156.644.39.40.06.1
20163.947.97.91.112.3
20173.644.97.80.013.6
20182.943.46.90.318.5
20191.742.16.60.221.7
20203.041.36.30.019.4
20212.742.26.10.018.3
20223.045.15.80.017.7
20233.445.15.30.020.4
20242.944.95.21.320.5
Table 6.Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae-gun indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: index, rank
2025
IndicatorsThis district Gyeongsangnam-do AverageNationalRank
1.7292.5552.607238 / 250
0.5870.8530.87238 / 250
0.2540.110.09928 / 250
0.1530.170.12381 / 250
3.183.533.14105 / 250
0.1910.2360.216115 / 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 Namhae-gunGyeongsangnam-doNational
20081.7412.0771.715
20092.1152.4712.136
20102.0762.4782.173
20111.9352.4722.181
20121.9642.4782.286
20131.8652.5382.322
20141.7872.5512.31
20151.732.562.325
20161.7982.5662.381
20171.8292.5582.421
20181.7142.5622.42
20191.7072.582.445
20201.6922.5592.464
20211.6952.562.491
20221.632.5672.552
20231.6042.5842.586
20241.6032.572.604
20251.7292.5552.607
Table 7.Continent of origin, composition and concentration, 2025Unit: %
2025
ContinentShare
Southeast Asia70.3
Other16.4
South Asia6.3
East Asia6.0
North America0.4
Central Asia0.3
Europe0.2

Source: Open dataset, indicators calculated from it.

Note: One nationality holds 30% or more of the foreigners in this district. Indonesia 40.1%, location quotient 10.5. The nationalities counted number 32.

Table 9.Multicultural marriages, 2014–2024Unit: cases, %
YearMulticulturalAll marriagesNamhae-gun ShareGyeongsangnam-doNational
2014121597.56.68.0
2015121368.86.67.4
20161312210.77.27.7
20171312310.68.08.3
20181711914.38.59.2
2019111189.310.010.3
20203933.27.37.6
20210750.06.27.2
20228859.49.19.1
2023148217.110.810.6
2024108012.510.29.6

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
IndicatorsNamhae-gunGyeongsangnam-doNational
Average wage, 20233,3083,9644,344
Share aged 65 and over, 202442.821.820.0
Fiscal independence, 20249.233.643.3
Jobs per 1,000 residents, 2024475483501
Share of jobs in manufacturing, 20245.926.516.2

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,
Namhae-gun17.7
Gyeongsangnam-do837.3
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.Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae-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.