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Statuses of stay number 29, and the groups that hold them number 6.

Working Holiday

The status code is H1, and it covers Working holiday, that is, young people aged 18 to 30 under bilateral agreements.

People registered under the Working Holiday (H1) status number 3,889, which is 0.2% of all registered foreigners. Compared with 1,585 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 145.4%. The largest nationalities are Japan at 41%, France at 17.4%, and Taiwan at 9%. They are found in 162 districts, and the largest counts are Seodaemun-gu with 455, Gwanak-gu with 443, and Mapo-gu with 418.

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, %
2025
IndicatorsWorking HolidayAll registered foreignersRelative to total
People3,8891,604,9200.2% of the total
Nationalities counted2919215.1% of the total
Districts of residence16225064.8% of the total

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

Working Holiday ranks #2 by size within the H group.

Table 2.Registered foreigners by status family, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
FamilyPersonsShare
F family, residence, family, and overseas Koreans589,52736.7
E family, employment493,57730.8
D family, study, training and investment341,45021.3
H group, Visiting Employment and Working Holiday84,9715.3
G group, other61,3803.8
Outside the families, other statuses34,0152.1

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 H group, the group Working Holiday falls under.

Figure 1.Working Holiday and all of the H group, 2006–2025Unit: 10,000 persons

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year.

Putting the status and the group on one axis shows the share Working Holiday takes within the H group.

View as table
YearWorking Holidayall of the H groupShare of family
2006354354100.0
2007332223,7820.1
2008368297,7950.1
2009309305,1100.1
2010549283,3500.2
2011960301,5140.3
20121,169236,3160.5
20131,486236,6680.6
20141,611280,9020.6
20151,585284,5800.6
20161,799251,8040.7
20172,184227,6391.0
20182,730248,9191.1
20192,948226,4611.3
2020842153,4070.5
2021260123,6920.2
20221,997104,9041.9
20233,546104,9803.4
20243,57795,3953.7
20253,88984,9714.6
Table 3.By nationality Working Holiday top 10 countries, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankNationalityPersonsWithin Working HolidayWithin nationality
1Japan1,59641.05.4
2France67517.412.2
3Taiwan3499.02.0
4Germany2115.46.7
5Spain1383.510.3
6Italy1223.18.2
7United Kingdom1082.82.1
8Canada922.42.0
9Chile691.821.5
10United States601.50.2
11Other countries (19)46912.1-

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 Working Holiday.

Table 4.Working Holiday top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictWorking HolidayShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Seodaemun-gu4552.7
2Seoul Gwanak-gu4432.2
3Seoul Mapo-gu4183.6
4Seoul Dongdaemun-gu1660.8
5Seoul Gangnam-gu1622.6
6Seoul Yeongdeungpo-gu1520.6
7Seoul Gwangjin-gu1090.6
8Seoul Yongsan-gu1090.8
9Seoul Gangseo-gu1011.5
10Seoul Dongjak-gu970.8

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

Note: In the district file, Working Holiday totals 3,889, the same as the nationwide count.

Table 5.Composition of statuses within the H group, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
StatusPersonsWithin group
Visiting Employment(H2)81,08295.4
Working Holiday(H1)3,8894.6

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, Working Holiday, 2025Unit: persons
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
    ProvinceWorking HolidayShare of national
    Seoul2,93975.6
    Gyeonggi-do3749.6
    Busan1955.0
    Incheon892.3
    Daegu481.2
    Gyeongsangbuk-do471.2
    Daejeon310.8
    Chungcheongbuk-do290.7
    Chungcheongnam-do260.7
    Gyeongsangnam-do230.6
    Jeju-do180.5
    Ulsan170.4
    Gangwon-do170.4
    Jeollabuk-do140.4
    Jeollanam-do120.3
    Gwangju70.2
    Sejong30.1