1 in 10 residents of Korea in their 20s, 30s have migrant backgrounds: data
Nearly one in 10 residents of Korea in their 20s and 30s comes from a migrant background as of last year, government figures showed Monday. The overall population with migrant backgrounds grew by nearly 100,000, offsetting a decline in Korean nationals without such backgrounds and driving a modest increase in the country’s total population. People with migrant backgrounds accounted for 10 percent…
Government data released last week reveals that one in ten residents of South Korea in their twenties and thirties have origins from migrant backgrounds. This proportion represents a slight increase in the country's overall population. As of 2025, 10% of all residents in their 20s and 9.5% of those in their 30s were classified as having a migrant background by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
Migrant-background residents are defined as individuals who are themselves migrants or possess at least one parent with a migrant background. This includes both foreign nationals and Korean citizens, such as naturalized citizens, second-generation immigrants, North Korean defectors, and their offspring. The statistics were derived from 27 types of administrative data collected by 13 different agencies, including resident registration records, foreign national registration and nationality acquisition documents.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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