Researcher

The status code is E3, and it covers Research in the natural sciences or advanced industrial technology at Korean public or private research institutes.

People registered under the Researcher (E3) status number 3,365, which is 0.2% of all registered foreigners. Compared with 3,131 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 7.5%. The largest nationalities are India at 35.6%, China at 11.3%, and Vietnam at 8.3%. They are found in 145 districts, and the largest counts are Yuseong-gu with 301, Suwon-si Yeongtong-gu with 178, and Suwon-si Jangan-gu with 144.

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy 2025 (registered foreigners by status of stay, registered foreigners by status of stay and district)

Note: the status families are exactly as the yearbook groups them. The overseas Korean status (F-4) does not appear on this page. Its holders file a place-of-residence report rather than a foreign-resident registration, so they are outside the registered foreigner statistics; they are not absent from the country. On the staying basis they were the largest single status in 2025, at 556,288.

Table 1.Key indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: persons, places, %

Year 2025

Indicators	Researcher	All registered foreigners	Relative to total
People	3,365	1,604,920	0.2% of the total
Nationalities counted	102	192	53.1% of the total
Districts of residence	145	250	58.0% of the total

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by status of stay, registered foreigners by status of stay and district).

Researcher ranks #7 by size within the E group.

Table 2.Registered foreigners by status family, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Family	Persons	Share
F family, residence, family, and overseas Koreans	589,527	36.7
E family, employment	493,577	30.8
D family, study, training and investment	341,450	21.3
H group, Visiting Employment and Working Holiday	84,971	5.3
G group, other	61,380	3.8
Outside the families, other statuses	34,015	2.1

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by status of stay).

The 6 groups sum to 1,604,920, the same as all registered foreigners.

Note: a family is the sum of the statuses inside it, so adding a family together with its individual statuses counts the same people twice.

The jade bar is the E group, the group Researcher falls under.

Figure 1.Researcher and all of the E group, 2006–2025Unit: 10,000 persons

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year.

Putting the status and the group on one axis shows the share Researcher takes within the E group.

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Year	Researcher	all of the E group	Share of family
2006	2,039	257,316	0.8
2007	2,278	241,714	0.9
2008	2,034	242,056	0.8
2009	2,038	241,071	0.8
2010	2,295	266,374	0.9
2011	2,573	285,257	0.9
2012	2,798	282,942	1.0
2013	2,964	300,773	1.0
2014	3,174	326,296	1.0
2015	3,131	332,346	0.9
2016	3,154	335,438	0.9
2017	3,192	333,420	1.0
2018	3,129	336,198	0.9
2019	3,109	332,025	0.9
2020	3,060	291,414	1.1
2021	3,585	273,499	1.3
2022	3,957	322,080	1.2
2023	3,877	400,033	1.0
2024	3,397	455,307	0.7
2025	3,365	493,577	0.7

Table 3.By nationality Researcher top 10 countries, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Rank	Nationality	Persons	Within Researcher	Within nationality
1	India	1,197	35.6	7.6
2	China	380	11.3	0.2
3	Vietnam	278	8.3	0.1
4	Pakistan	220	6.5	1.3
5	Japan	152	4.5	0.5
6	Iran	120	3.6	8.3
7	Bangladesh	89	2.6	0.3
8	Indonesia	84	2.5	0.1
9	Nepal	69	2.1	0.1
10	United States	65	1.9	0.2
11	Other countries (92)	711	21.1	-

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by status of stay and nationality).

The within-nationality column is the share of that country's registered foreigners who hold Researcher.

Table 4.Researcher top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Rank	District	Researcher	Share of local foreigners
1	Daejeon Yuseong-gu	301	3.3
2	Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Yeongtong-gu	178	1.9
3	Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Jangan-gu	144	1.8
4	Seoul Gwanak-gu	144	0.7
5	Gwangju Buk-gu	124	2.2
6	Seoul Dongdaemun-gu	106	0.5
7	Seoul Seodaemun-gu	101	0.6
8	Ulsan Ulju-gun	87	0.9
9	Busan Geumjeong-gu	86	1.7
10	Gyeongsangbuk-do Pohang-si Nam-gu	82	1.8

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by status of stay and district).

Note: In the district file, Researcher totals 3,365, the same as the nationwide count.

Table 5.Composition of statuses within the E group, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year 2025

Status	Persons	Within group
Non-professional Employment(E9)	336,713	68.2
Specially Designated Activities(E7)	81,723	16.6
Seasonal Worker(E8)	31,609	6.4
Crew Employment(E10)	20,920	4.2
Foreign Language Instructor(E2)	12,864	2.6
Arts & Entertainment(E6)	4,224	0.9
Researcher(E3)	3,365	0.7
Professor(E1)	1,729	0.4
Specialized Occupation(E5)	221	0.0
Technical Instructor(E4)	209	0.0

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy (registered foreigners by status of stay).

Note: the teal bar is the status you selected. Selecting a status outside a family shows that status alone.

Figure 2.By province, Researcher, 2025Unit: persons

Year 2025

Count range

Note: The boundaries are shapes simplified for display and are drawn as pen lines. The fill values are the provincial totals from the yearbook and do not depend on the shapes.

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by district and status of stay), summed to the province level.

Note: The map shades the 17 provinces, and the same values are also held for the 250 districts.

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Province	Researcher	Share of national
Seoul	790	23.5
Gyeonggi-do	648	19.3
Daejeon	368	10.9
Gyeongsangbuk-do	185	5.5
Busan	178	5.3
Gwangju	168	5.0
Ulsan	142	4.2
Jeollabuk-do	142	4.2
Gyeongsangnam-do	130	3.9
Daegu	125	3.7
Incheon	103	3.1
Chungcheongnam-do	92	2.7
Jeollanam-do	87	2.6
Gangwon-do	79	2.3
Chungcheongbuk-do	76	2.3
Jeju-do	44	1.3
Sejong	8	0.2