South Korea's foreign residents hit record 2.66 million as international student numbers…

South Korea's foreign resident population climbed past 2.66 million in 2025, or more than one in 20 people in the country, as the number of international students surged.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety counted a record 2,662,967 foreign residents as of Nov. 1, 2025, up 79,341, or 3.1%, from a year earlier, The Korea Times reported, citing a ministry report released on Oct. 28.

It was the fourth straight annual rise. Foreign residents now made up 5.1% of the country's population of more than 51.8 million.

The tally covers people who have lived in South Korea for more than 90 days. It comprises 2,109,057 foreign nationals, 256,491 naturalized Korean citizens and 297,419 Korean-born children of foreign residents.

International students posted the steepest growth of any group, rising 17.6% to 274,329.

Foreign workers grew 2.3% to 514,043 and marriage immigrants 1.1% to 194,017, while ethnic Koreans holding foreign nationality fell 1.1% to 411,314.

Vietnamese were the second largest group among residents without Korean citizenship, at 318,090, or 15.1%, behind Chinese nationals of Korean descent at 534,520, The Korea Economic Daily reported. Other Chinese nationals numbered 220,775 and Thais 158,547.

People of Vietnamese origin also made up 23.7% of those who had acquired Korean citizenship, second only to Chinese of Korean descent, the newspaper said.

Among international students, though, Vietnam overtook China as the largest group in South Korean higher education as of April this year, with 96,834 students, or 31.5% of the total, according to Education Ministry data released in August.

Foreign residents increased in all 17 provinces and metropolitan cities, Korea JoongAng Daily reported, with North Gyeongsang posting the fastest growth at 8%, followed by Gangwon at 7.9%.

Gyeonggi, the province surrounding Seoul, had the largest foreign population at 859,943, followed by Seoul at 453,201. The greater Seoul area was home to 1,487,968 foreign residents, or 55.9% of the total.

At the municipal level, Ansan in Gyeonggi led with 109,544 foreign residents, followed by Hwaseong, Siheung, Suwon and Bucheon, all also in the province.

South Chungcheong had the highest foreign share of any province or metropolitan city at 7.9%, while in the southwestern county of Yeongam foreign residents made up 22.4% of the population, the highest of any locality, The Korea Economic Daily reported.

The number of cities, counties and districts with a high concentration of foreign residents, defined as those with at least 10,000 foreign residents or a foreign share of 5% or more, rose by 12 to 154.

Jang Heon-beom, director general of the Interior Ministry's Local Administration Bureau, said the increase "shows that local communities are becoming more diverse and dynamic," Korea JoongAng Daily reported. He said the data would help shape policies that allow foreign residents to settle stably into local communities.