South Korea's migrant-background population rises 3.5 percent to 2.81 million

South Korea's migrant-background population rose 3.5 percent to 2.81 million in November 2025, the National Data Office said Sunday, as a slowdown in foreign arrivals pulled the overall growth rate below the previous year's pace.

The figure made up 5.4 percent of the country's total population of 51.82 million, up 95,000 from a year earlier. Of the total, 2.109 million, or 75.1 percent, were foreigners, while 701,000, or 24.9 percent, were South Korean nationals.

The office attributed the increase to growth in foreign workers, students and marriage migrants, together with family formation through naturalization, marriage and childbirth. Foreigners' growth rate fell to 3.2 percent from 5.6 percent a year earlier, dragging the overall increase down from 5.2 percent to 3.5 percent.

"The National Data Office developed statistics covering the entire migrant-background population living in the country, based on the registered census, for policy and research support," said Kyeong Eun-sook, an official at the office. "We published the results for the first time last December and are publishing them for the second time this year."

The population is markedly younger than the country as a whole. People aged 15 to 64 numbered 2.302 million, or 81.9 percent of the total, while those aged 65 and older accounted for 5.8 percent and children aged 0 to 14 for 12.2 percent. Among South Korea's total population, 69.2 percent are of working age and 20.7 percent are 65 or older, Kyeong noted.

"With 81.9 percent of the working-age population and 5.8 percent aged 65 or older, the age structure can be described as young compared with the 69.2 percent and 20.7 percent in the country's total population," she said.

Children and young people aged 24 or under made up 787,000 of the migrant-background population, up 6.6 percent from a year earlier, though the growth rate eased slightly from 7.9 percent. They accounted for 28.0 percent of the migrant-background population and 7.7 percent of all children and young people in the country. Among them, 52.2 percent were foreigners and 43.2 percent were second-generation immigrants.

The population remains concentrated in the capital region, which was home to 56.0 percent of the total, or 1.573 million people. Gyeonggi Province accounted for 32.3 percent of the national figure, Seoul 17.1 percent, Incheon 6.7 percent, South Chungcheong Province 6.6 percent and South Gyeongsang Province 6.3 percent. Relative to each region's own population, South Chungcheong had the highest share at 8.3 percent.

Some rural counties approached one migrant-background resident in five. Yeongam County in South Jeolla Province and Eumseong County in North Chungcheong Province each had a ratio close to 20 percent of their populations.