Long-term foreign residents in S. Korea at all-time high

An international student participates in a Korean language quiz tournament at Keimyung University in Daegu on Oct. 8. (Yonhap)

The number of foreign nationals residing in South Korea long-term has increased to an all-time high, reaching almost 2.5 million last year, according to official data presented by the Ministry of Interior and Safety on Thursday.

As of Nov. 1, 2023, there were a total of 2,459,542 foreign nationals staying in Korea for at least three months. According to the Interior Ministry -- which defines foreign residents as those without Korean nationality, those who have obtained Korean citizenship but are not ethnically Korean, and children born in Korea to foreign national parents -- this is the highest number the ministry has seen since the statistic was first recorded in 2006. In 2022, the number stood close to 2.26 million.

The ministry said the number of long-term foreign residents accounted for 4.8 percent of Korea’s total population, which stood at 51.77 million as of November 2023. The size of the foreign population last year was comparable to the total populations of North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu, which were home to 2.59 million and 2.38 million people, respectively.

According to the Interior Ministry, the steep rise in the number of long-term foreign residents may be due to an increase in the number of migrant workers and international students.

“It is notable that the number of migrant workers and international students increased by 16.6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, or 67,111 and 16,932, compared with the previous year,” said the ministry in its press release.

In particular, the number of foreign residents who had not obtained Korean citizenship -- those with student, resident, marriage or overseas Korean visas -- increased by 10.4 percent, totaling about 1.94 million, while those who had obtained Korean citizenship since entering the country increased by 4.8 percent to 234,506.

The ministry added that the number of children born to foreign residents in Korea also increased by 2.8 percent from the year before, for a total of 289,886 children born to foreign residents since 2006.

The number of long-term foreign residents increased by more than 7 percent in all provinces and cities, excluding Seoul. The growth rate was higher outside the capital region in areas such as South Jeolla Province, South Gyeongsang Province and Ulsan, which saw on-year increases of 18.5 percent, 17 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively.

Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul and is a part of the Greater Seoul area, also saw the largest increase in long-term foreign residents, with an on-year rise of 58,294. It also had the largest foreign population at 809,801, followed by Seoul at 449,014 and Incheon at 160,859. Based on those figures, the ministry said 57.8 percent of foreign residents live in the Greater Seoul area.

Among cities in Gyeonggi Province, Ansan had the highest foreign population, rising to 108,033, followed by Hwaseong with 76,711 and Siheung with 74,653.

The government designates local municipalities with over 10,000 foreign national residents, or whose foreign population exceeds 5 percent of the total population, as areas with a "high concentration of foreign residents.” According to the ministry, there were a total of 127 such areas across the country last year, up by 30 from the year before. Of the 30 areas newly designated, 28 were located outside of the Greater Seoul area.

By Lee Jung-joo(lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com)