Number Of Foreigners Staying In S. Korea Tops 2.5 Mln

The number of foreigners staying in South Korea topped 2.5 million for the first time last year, local media reported Monday citing data from the Ministry of Justice

SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2020 ) :The number of foreigners staying in South Korea topped 2.5 million for the first time last year, local media reported Monday citing data from the Ministry of Justice.

As of the end of 2019, 2,524,656 foreigners were residing in the country, surpassing the 2.5 million mark for the first time. It was up 6.6 percent from a year earlier.

It accounted for 4.9 percent of the country's total population. The foreign population exceeded 1 million in August 2007 and 2 million in June 2016 respectively.

The number of long-term stayers who were registered with the authorities to stay here for more than 90 days was 1,731,803, or 68.6 percent of the total foreign population.

The remaining 31.4 percent, or 792,853 foreigners, were short-term stayers.

By nationality, Chinese people formed the biggest group of foreigners staying here, with a number of 1,101,782, or 43.6 percent of the total.

It was followed by Vietnamese with 224,518, Thais with 209,909, Americans with 156,982, Japanese with 86,196, Uzbeks with 75,320, Filipinos with 62,398, Russians with 61,427, Indonesians with 48,854, Mongolians with 48,185 and Cambodians with 47,565 each.

The number of illegal foreign stayers was 390,281 as of the end of 2019, up 9.9 percent from a year earlier. It took up 15.5 percent of the entire foreign population, up 0.5 percentage points compared with a year earlier.