Migrant-background population hits 5.4% of Korea's total, led by young adults

Korea’s migrant-background population accounted for 5.4 percent of the total population last year, with one in 10 people in their 20s and 30s having a migrant background. 

Those with migrant backgrounds refer to people who themselves are migrants or have a parent who is a migrant. The category includes foreign nationals in Korea; naturalized citizens; people who acquired citizenship through acknowledgment of parentage; second-generation immigrants; ethnic Koreans from Sakhalin; and North Korean defectors and their children.

The migrant-background population reached 2.81 million in 2025 — an increase of 95,000, or 3.5 percent, from a year earlier — and accounted for 5.4 percent of the country’s total population of 51.82 million, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous year, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said on Monday. 

Over the same period, Korea’s total population grew by just 12,000, or 0.02 percent.

Among those with migrant backgrounds, people in their 30s were the largest age group at 23.7 percent, or 667,000 people, followed by those in their 20s at 21.6 percent and those in their 40s at 15.6 percent. 

Working-age people, or those between 15 and 64, accounted for 81.9 percent of the migrant-background population, or 2.3 million people. That was 12.7 percentage points higher than the 69.2 percent share of working-age people in Korea’s overall population.

Foreign nationals accounted for the largest share of the migrant-background population at 2.11 million people, or 75.1 percent, followed by second-generation immigrants at 397,000, or 14.1 percent. Naturalized citizens and those who acquired nationality through recognition accounted for 256,000 people, or 9.1 percent.

The number of people in their 20s increased the most, adding 36,461 people over the year. Those aged 10 to 19 followed with 25,120 people, and those in their 40s with 20,228. 

Those with migrant backgrounds made up 10 percent of the overall 20s population and 9.5 percent of the overall 30s population. 

Of migrant-background children and teenagers, Vietnam accounted for the largest share at 28 percent, based on the nationality of foreign nationals and migrant parents of Korean nationals. 

China followed with 15.7 percent, and ethnic Koreans from China with 11.4 percent. The three categories combined made up 55.1 percent of the total. 

Looking at only foreigners, Vietnam had the largest share at 25.3 percent, followed by China at 16.3 percent, ethnic Koreans from China at 8.2 percent and Uzbekistan at 7.8 percent. 

Among naturalized citizens and those who acquired Korean nationality through recognition of parentage, China topped the list at 34.6 percent, followed by ethnic Koreans from China at 31 percent. For second-generation immigrants, Vietnam topped the list at 33.3 percent, and ethnic Koreans from China followed at 14.1 percent.

The greater Seoul area — Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon — was the most popular region, with 56 percent of the overall migrant-background population living in the area.

By province and city, 32.3 percent of the migrant-background population lived in Gyeonggi. Another 17.1 percent lived in Seoul, 6.7 percent in Incheon, 6.6 percent in South Chungcheong and 6.3 percent in South Gyeongsang.

By city and county, 4 percent of the migrant-background population lived in Gyeonggi’s Ansan, 3.1 percent in Gyeonggi’s Hwaseong and 2.9 percent in Gyeonggi’s Siheung.

For 21 cities, counties and districts, people with migrant backgrounds accounted for 10 percent or more of their total population.

South Jeolla’s Yeongam County had the largest share with 22.7 percent, followed by North Chungcheong’s Eumseong County with 20.3 percent and Gyeonggi’s Ansan with 16.3 percent.

Geumcheon District in southern Seoul and Guro District in western Seoul were the only Seoul districts to rank among the top 10 in terms of share of residents with migrant backgrounds at 13.3 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively.

By gender, 52.5 percent of the overall migrant-background population were male, and 47.5 percent female.

The migrant-background population is projected to grow and reach 4.04 million by 2042 and account for 8.1 percent of Korea’s total population. 

BY LEE TAE-HEE [[email protected]]