Foreign & Immigrant Population in South Korea
As of 2024, about 2,650,524 foreign nationals were living in South Korea, roughly 5.2% of the population, spanning more than 200 nationalities. The largest groups are Korean-Chinese, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
2,650,524
Foreign residents (2024)
5.2%
Of total population
200
Nationalities
Source: MOJ immigration yearbooks, MOU, MOIS
KIRD harmonizes the Ministry of Justice immigration yearbooks, Ministry of Unification defector statistics, and Ministry of the Interior resident-registration population (2006–2024) into one comparable dataset. It separates staying foreigners (registered + short-term) from registered foreigners, so you can read national scale, nationality mix, and year-over-year change at a glance.