KIRD Korea Immigration Regional Dashboard
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Open dataset

Every table and figure on this site comes from the 26 files below, 1,392,172 rows in all, assembled from the annual statistical yearbooks of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety across layouts that change from year to year. The files are at openICPSR, and the code that produces them is at github.com/nariyoo/kird-korea-immigration.

Table 1.26 files in the open datasetUnit: rows, columns, KB
FileContentsRowsColumnsYearSize
multicultural_households.csvMulticultural household composition by sub-district344,842132016–202445,916
visa_by_nationality.csvRegistered foreigners by nationality and status of stay239,08182006–202416,611
language_demand.csvFirst-language demand estimated from nationality composition207,962112006–202415,411
nationality_by_sigungu.csvRegistered foreigners by district and nationality174,748102008–202414,901
age_sex_national.csvRegistered and staying foreigners by nationality, age and sex, national (kept apart by the population column)168,12272006–20247,583
visa_by_sigungu.csvRegistered foreigners by district and status of stay78,12392008–20245,323
children_by_age.csvChildren of foreign residents (MOIS) by district and age63,94292011–20244,269
summary_by_eupmyeondong.csvForeign-resident composition by sub-district (MOIS broad definition)38,646242014–20245,918
nationality_by_sido.csvRegistered foreigners by province and nationality25,20572006–20241,446
naturalization_by_country.csvNationality-related decisions by nationality16,21062011–20241,048
nationality_national.csvRegistered foreigners by nationality, national7,28052006–2024283
visa_by_sido.csvRegistered foreigners by province and residence status7,20962008–2024292
diaspora_residence_by_sido.csvOverseas Korean residence reports by province (F-4, outside the registered-foreigner count)6,17272008–2024362
language_weights.csvWeights used to split nationalities into first languages (Ethnologue)4,5155-188
summary_by_sigungu.csvRegistered foreigners, resident-registration population, share, and diversity index by district4,261352008–2024918
naturalization_by_age.csvNationality-related decisions by age1,62052011–202480
visa_national.csvRegistered foreigners by residence status, national1,24162006–202463
segregation_by_nationality.csvIndex of dissimilarity, isolation index, and interaction with Koreans by nationality1,06492014–202475
ethnic_enclaves.csvCases of one nationality at 30% or more of local foreigners738132008–202476
summary_by_sido.csvRegistered foreigners and resident-registration population by province, with share and diversity index317292006–202459
crosswalk_country.csvCrosswalk from the nationality labels each yearbook edition prints to the standard names2686-20
crosswalk_visa.csvCrosswalk from the old sub-codes for residence status to the parent codes used here2405-17
naturalization_annual.csvNationality cases by year14042011–20246
region_segregation.csvSegregation indicators by district12162014–20246
crosswalk_region.csvCrosswalk from renamed places and changed boundaries to the standard region names886-7
national_annual.csvRegistered foreigners and staying foreigners by year, national17282008–20243
Total1,392,172120,881

Source: openICPSR public dataset, DOI 10.3886/E249944.

Note: Files download in two formats, CSV and Stata dta. Variable definitions are in data_dictionary.csv. Click a file name to open its description in the repository.

Table 2.Published figures against district totalsUnit: persons, %
YearYearbook national totalDistrict totalDifferenceDifference rate
2008854,007854,00700
2009870,636870,63600
2010918,917918,91700
2011982,461982,46100
2012932,983932,98300
2013985,923985,92300
20141,091,5311,091,53100
20151,143,0871,143,08610
20161,161,6771,161,67700
20171,171,7621,171,76200
20181,246,6261,246,62600
20191,271,8071,271,80700
20201,145,5401,145,54000
20211,093,8911,093,89100
20221,189,5851,189,58500
20231,348,6261,348,62600
20241,488,3531,488,35300
20251,604,9201,604,92000

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy, each year.

Note: The yearbook's national figure counts the lines that name no nationality (stateless and others). The sum of the district tables equals it in every year except 2015, when the yearbook's Gyeonggi subtotal holds 1 person more than its district lines, so the national figure is 1 larger. District maps and charts use the district sum as the denominator.

Downloads

Reproducing the data

Clone the repository and run the two lines below to rebuild the tables. The raw yearbooks are not included in the repository, so download them from each ministry and place them under KIRD_ROOT .

pip install -r code/requirements.txt
KIRD_ROOT=/path/to/KIRD python code/run_pipeline.py

--phase 2 rebuilds the tables only, and --from 27_export_dataset.py resumes from that step.

Source: github.com/nariyoo/kird-korea-immigration README.

Source data

Note: The year range is the range this site actually uses. It can differ from the range the ministry publishes.

Citation

Yoo, N. (2026). Spatiotemporal administrative dataset of nationality, residential diversity, and language demand among immigrants in South Korea, 2006–2024 [Data set]. Ann Arbor, MI: openICPSR. https://doi.org/10.3886/E249944

License

CC BY 4.0. The copyright holder is Nari Yoo (University of Michigan School of Social Work). Copyright in the source data rests with each ministry. Questions to nariyoo@umich.edu.