October 31, 2025
SEOUL – The number of long-term residents in South Korea of a foreign nationality or background — which includes naturalized citizens — has surpassed 2.5 million, an all-time high, according to data from the Ministry of Interior and Safety.
According to the Interior Ministry, as of November 2024, some 2.58 million foreign nationals and naturalized citizens were found to have resided in Korea for more than three months, the threshold for classification as a long-term resident.
The Interior Ministry’s figures differ from those of the Korea Immigration Service — which recorded 2.04 million foreign nationals during the same period — because the latter does not count those born in Korea to foreign parents or naturalized citizens.
The Interior Ministry said its data also marks the highest figure since the government began compiling related statistics in 2006, and an increase from the 2.46 million it had recorded a year earlier, which marked the previous all-time high.
The ministry added that this number accounts for 5 percent of Korea’s total population of 51.8 million — a figure comparable to the population of North Gyeongsang Province, the country’s sixth-most-populous region.
Among the total, 2.04 million were non-Korean nationals in Korea with long-term visas. Within this group, the number of international students rose by 26,908, or 13 percent, from 2023. The number of foreign workers and marriage visa holders increased by 6.9 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.
The number of Korean nationals with foreign backgrounds, including naturalized citizens as well as children born in Korea to parents of foreign nationality, also increased.
According to the ministry, Korea was home to some 245,000 naturalized citizens, up 4.7 percent from the previous year, while foreign nationals in Korea who were born in the country rose 1.9 percent to more than 295,000.
An increase in foreign residents was observed across all 17 major administrative divisions. South Jeolla Province saw the highest growth rate at 10.5 percent, followed by Ulsan at 8.9 percent and North Gyeongsang and South Chungcheong provinces at 8.8 percent each.
Gyeonggi Province saw the highest number of foreign residents, rising to 845,074. This was followed by Seoul at 450,888 and South Chungcheong Province at 169,245. Incheon followed close behind with 169,219.
Over 56.7 percent of all foreign nationals lived in the Greater Seoul region, which includes Gyeonggi Province, Seoul and Incheon.
Foreign resident-concentrated areas, defined as districts where the foreign resident population either exceeds 10,000 or comprises more than 5 percent of the area’s population, rose to 142 from 127 the previous year. All 15 newly designated areas were outside the capital region.
The five municipalities with the highest foreign resident populations were Ansan, Hwaseong, Siheung, Suwon and Bucheon — all cities in Gyeonggi Province.
