South Korea’s Foreign Population Reaches 2.87 Million in August

The number of foreign nationals in South Korea reached 2.87 million at the end of August, rising 5.3 percent from a year earlier, according to government immigration data released Saturday.

The total was up from 2.73 million in August 2025, extending the broader recovery in the country’s foreign population since the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The number had fallen below 2 million in 2021 before beginning a steady increase.

Despite the year-on-year gain, the August total was lower than the 2.9 million recorded in July. The latest figures therefore show a continued annual expansion alongside a modest decline from the previous month.

Long-term foreign residents accounted for 2.25 million of the August total. Another 629,406 people were staying in the country on a short-term basis, a category that includes tourists. The breakdown highlights the substantial presence of both settled foreign communities and temporary visitors in South Korea.

Chinese nationals were the largest group, representing 34.6 percent of all foreign nationals, or 995,562 people. Vietnamese nationals were the second-largest group at 383,244, followed by Americans at 181,325. Together, the figures reflect the varied composition of the foreign population and the particularly large share represented by nationals of neighboring Asian countries.

The data also showed a strong concentration of registered foreign residents in and around the capital. Of the country’s 1.64 million registered foreign nationals, 51.5 percent lived in the greater Seoul area. A further 21.3 percent lived in North Gyeongsang and South Gyeongsang provinces in southeastern Korea.

The regional distribution means that nearly three quarters of registered foreign nationals were based either in the capital region or the two Gyeongsang provinces. The figures are likely to remain relevant to local planning for housing, education, employment services and multilingual public support as foreign communities expand.

The August count covers foreign nationals with different lengths and purposes of stay, rather than a single category of immigrants. It combines long-term residents with short-term visitors in the headline total, while the separate registered-resident figure provides a clearer view of where established foreign communities are concentrated.

The latest data offer a snapshot of a population that has grown significantly since the pandemic-era low. While monthly totals can move with travel and other short-term changes, the annual increase indicates that the overall foreign presence in South Korea remained on an upward path in August.