Permanent Residence

The status code is F5, and it covers Permanent residence, that is, indefinite stay, free re-entry after departure, and unrestricted employment.

People registered under the Permanent Residence (F5) status number 220,788, which is 13.8% of all registered foreigners. Compared with 123,033 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 79.5%. The largest nationalities are Korean-Chinese at 65.4%, China at 17.5%, and Taiwan at 4.5%. They are found in 250 districts, and the largest counts are Bucheon-si with 13,238, Siheung-si with 11,534, and Ansan-si Danwon-gu with 10,711.

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	Permanent Residence	All registered foreigners	Relative to total
People	220,788	1,604,920	13.8% of the total
Nationalities counted	134	192	69.8% 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).

Permanent Residence is the largest status 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 Permanent Residence falls under.

Figure 1.Permanent Residence 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 Permanent Residence takes within the F group.

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Year	Permanent Residence	all of the F group	Share of family
2006	13,957	256,645	5.4
2007	16,460	199,301	8.3
2008	19,276	206,115	9.4
2009	22,446	213,157	10.5
2010	45,475	239,429	19.0
2011	64,979	267,542	24.3
2012	84,140	301,523	27.9
2013	100,169	334,415	30.0
2014	112,519	359,676	31.3
2015	123,033	386,967	31.8
2016	130,011	413,695	31.4
2017	136,118	428,995	31.7
2018	141,973	444,687	31.9
2019	153,038	469,017	32.6
2020	160,733	459,516	35.0
2021	167,894	457,155	36.7
2022	175,873	479,776	36.7
2023	185,213	517,399	35.8
2024	202,738	558,544	36.3
2025	220,788	589,527	37.5

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

Year 2025

Rank	Nationality	Persons	Within Permanent Residence	Within nationality
1	Korean-Chinese	144,455	65.4	57.5
2	China	38,668	17.5	17.1
3	Taiwan	9,965	4.5	58.0
4	Japan	6,986	3.2	23.8
5	Uzbekistan	3,774	1.7	5.4
6	Vietnam	2,836	1.3	1.0
7	United States	2,001	0.9	5.4
8	Korean-Russian	1,869	0.8	68.9
9	Mongolia	900	0.4	2.1
10	Canada	855	0.4	18.6
11	Other countries (124)	8,477	3.8	-

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 Permanent Residence.

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

Year 2025

Rank	District	Permanent Residence	Share of local foreigners
1	Gyeonggi-do Bucheon-si	13,238	41.7
2	Gyeonggi-do Siheung-si	11,534	27.3
3	Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Danwon-gu	10,711	28.0
4	Seoul Guro-gu	10,262	42.0
5	Seoul Yeongdeungpo-gu	9,660	40.4
6	Incheon Bupyeong-gu	8,231	45.5
7	Seoul Geumcheon-gu	5,888	41.3
8	Gyeonggi-do Hwaseong-si	5,831	10.6
9	Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Paldal-gu	5,090	40.2
10	Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si	4,634	12.8

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

Note: In the district file, Permanent Residence totals 220,788, 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, Permanent Residence, 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	Permanent Residence	Share of national
Gyeonggi-do	95,349	43.2
Seoul	54,554	24.7
Incheon	22,032	10.0
Chungcheongnam-do	10,401	4.7
Gyeongsangnam-do	6,049	2.7
Chungcheongbuk-do	4,968	2.3
Busan	4,015	1.8
Jeju-do	3,807	1.7
Gyeongsangbuk-do	3,575	1.6
Ulsan	3,368	1.5
Daegu	2,546	1.2
Jeollabuk-do	2,257	1.0
Jeollanam-do	2,143	1.0
Daejeon	1,770	0.8
Gangwon-do	1,744	0.8
Gwangju	1,643	0.7
Sejong	567	0.3