Worldwide scholar graduates and their mates take a commemorative photograph in the course of the graduation ceremony at Hankuk College of Overseas Research in Dongdaemun District, Seoul, Feb. 14. Yonhap
The variety of overseas residents in Korea reached a report excessive final 12 months, accounting for greater than 5 p.c of the nation’s whole inhabitants, justice ministry information confirmed Monday.
Based on the Korea Immigration Service, a justice ministry company, the variety of foreigners dwelling in Korea stood at 2.65 million, making up 5.17 p.c of the overall inhabitants. This marks a rise of 126,127 from the earlier excessive in 2019 and surpasses the 4.89 p.c stage recorded in 2023.
Over the previous decade, Korea has seen a gentle rise in overseas residents, from 1.9 million in 2015 to 2.52 million in 2019. Though the numbers declined because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they rebounded in 2022 and have continued to rise since.
Among the many overseas residents, 2.04 million, or 77 p.c, had been long-term residents who registered or reported their residence with the authorities, whereas 608,766 had been short-term guests.
By nationality, Chinese language had been the biggest group, numbering 958,959, adopted by Vietnamese with 305,936, Thais with 188,770, People with 170,251 and Uzbeks with 94,893.
Almost half of overseas residents had been of their 20s and 30s, whereas these of their 40s made up 15.9 p.c. Overseas residents aged 60 and above stood at 12.9 p.c, whereas these of their 50s represented 12.6 p.c.
The variety of worldwide college students has additionally surged, reaching 263,775 final 12 months — up 16.5 p.c from 226,507 in 2022. Amongst them, 178,519 had been enrolled in diploma packages, whereas 85,256 had been attending Korean language programs.
The justice ministry emphasised the necessity to devise immigration insurance policies to drive nationwide development by attracting and retaining expert overseas workforce, together with worldwide college students.
„We should create an setting the place worldwide college students and important overseas staff can settle in Korea and contribute to the nation’s financial development,“ a ministry official stated. „Securing public consensus is essential to sustaining orderly residency insurance policies and making certain the combination of immigrants into society.“
