Seoul: The number of long-term foreign residents in South Korea surged to a record 2.58 million last year, making up approximately 5 percent of the country's total population of 51.8 million, as reported by the interior ministry on Thursday. This marks the highest figure since such data started being recorded in 2006.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the interior ministry, referencing data from Statistics Korea's population census, revealed that there were 2,583,626 foreign residents who had stayed in the country for at least three months as of November 1, 2024. This number reflects an increase from the 2.46 million recorded the previous year.
The surge in foreign residents places their population on par with that of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea's sixth-largest province by population, which has 2,578,999 residents. The ministry also highlighted that the number of foreign residents without Korean nationality rose by 5.6 percent to approximately 2.04 million, while those with Korean nationality grew by 4.7 percent to 245,578. Additionally, the number of children born to foreign residents in South Korea increased by 1.9 percent, or 5,418 children, totaling 295,304.
Notably, there was a significant rise in migrant workers and international students, with their numbers increasing by 6.9 percent and 13 percent, to 32,384 and 26,908, respectively. The ministry further noted that 56.7 percent, or 1.46 million, of all foreign residents were concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area.