Residential

The status code is F2, and it covers Long-term residence status through the points system, investment, five years of marriage migration and other routes.

People registered under the Residential (F2) status number 67,842, which is 4.2% of all registered foreigners. Compared with 38,707 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 75.3%. The largest nationalities are China at 38.8%, Korean-Chinese at 19.5%, and Vietnam at 10.1%. They are found in 250 districts, and the largest counts are Siheung-si with 3,230, Ansan-si Danwon-gu with 2,830, and Bucheon-si with 2,719.

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	Residential	All registered foreigners	Relative to total
People	67,842	1,604,920	4.2% of the total
Nationalities counted	149	192	77.6% of the total
Districts of residence	250	250	All districts

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

Residential ranks #5 by size within the F 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 F group, the group Residential falls under.

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

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year.

Putting the status and the group on one axis shows the share Residential takes within the F group.

View as table

Year	Residential	all of the F group	Share of family
2006	103,125	256,645	40.2
2007	118,994	199,301	59.7
2008	130,290	206,115	63.2
2009	132,329	213,157	62.1
2010	138,662	239,429	57.9
2011	138,345	267,542	51.7
2012	63,299	301,523	21.0
2013	39,628	334,415	11.8
2014	37,364	359,676	10.4
2015	38,707	386,967	10.0
2016	39,485	413,695	9.5
2017	40,395	428,995	9.4
2018	40,873	444,687	9.2
2019	43,403	469,017	9.3
2020	43,366	459,516	9.4
2021	42,086	457,155	9.2
2022	44,284	479,776	9.2
2023	53,056	517,399	10.3
2024	61,039	558,544	10.9
2025	67,842	589,527	11.5

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

Year 2025

Rank	Nationality	Persons	Within Residential	Within nationality
1	China	26,333	38.8	11.6
2	Korean-Chinese	13,256	19.5	5.3
3	Vietnam	6,828	10.1	2.3
4	Uzbekistan	2,380	3.5	3.4
5	Taiwan	2,340	3.4	13.6
6	Mongolia	1,786	2.6	4.2
7	Bangladesh	1,240	1.8	3.8
8	Nepal	1,159	1.7	1.3
9	United States	1,083	1.6	2.9
10	Pakistan	1,017	1.5	5.8
11	Other countries (139)	10,394	15.3	-

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 Residential.

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

Year 2025

Rank	District	Residential	Share of local foreigners
1	Gyeonggi-do Siheung-si	3,230	7.7
2	Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Danwon-gu	2,830	7.4
3	Gyeonggi-do Bucheon-si	2,719	8.6
4	Seoul Guro-gu	2,183	8.9
5	Seoul Yeongdeungpo-gu	2,098	8.8
6	Incheon Bupyeong-gu	1,811	10.0
7	Gyeonggi-do Hwaseong-si	1,688	3.1
8	Seoul Gwanak-gu	1,388	7.0
9	Jeju-do Jeju-si	1,310	7.1
10	Seoul Geumcheon-gu	1,247	8.7

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

Note: In the district file, Residential totals 67,842, the same as the nationwide count.

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

Year 2025

Status	Persons	Within group
Permanent Residence(F5)	220,788	37.5
Marriage Migration(F6)	153,213	26.0
Dependent Family(F3)	74,261	12.6
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)	73,423	12.5
Residential(F2)	67,842	11.5

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, Residential, 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.

View as table

Province	Residential	Share of national
Gyeonggi-do	23,853	35.2
Seoul	16,877	24.9
Incheon	6,385	9.4
Chungcheongnam-do	3,613	5.3
Gyeongsangnam-do	2,689	4.0
Jeju-do	2,381	3.5
Gyeongsangbuk-do	2,035	3.0
Chungcheongbuk-do	1,975	2.9
Busan	1,578	2.3
Jeollabuk-do	1,411	2.1
Daegu	1,123	1.7
Ulsan	1,047	1.5
Daejeon	868	1.3
Jeollanam-do	755	1.1
Gwangju	661	1.0
Gangwon-do	445	0.7
Sejong	146	0.2