Foreign residents in S. Korea top 2.8 mln for first time in Oct.
The number of foreigners residing in South Korea surpassed 2.8 million for the first time in October, driven by increases in long-term stays for work, study and seasonal employment, government data showed Saturday, Yonhap reports.
According to the immigration data from the justice ministry, 2,837,525 foreign nationals were registered as staying in the country as of October, up 3.6 percent from the previous month.
The foreign resident population had hit a pre-pandemic peak of 2.524 million in 2019, then fell sharply to 1.956 million in 2021 due to COVID-19. It rebounded to 2.507 million in 2023 and climbed to 2.65 million in 2024.
By type of stay, long-term residents totaled about 2.16 million, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier, while short-term residents rose 2.7 percent to 676,000.
Among visa categories, seasonal workers under the E-8 visa surged 58.7 percent on-year to 65,000. Holders of the D-2 student visa increased 22.1 percent to 222,000, while E-9 non-professional employment visa holders rose 2.4 percent to 335,000.
Chinese nationals accounted for the largest share by nationality at 975,000, or 34.4 percent, followed by citizens of Vietnam, the United States and Thailand at 12.5 percent, 6.9 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
