Migration trends in South Korea
Asia
2M people from South Korea have built lives abroad. That's 3.9% of the country population, spread across 78 different countries
51.8M
Population
1.6M
Immigrants
2M
Emigrants
−411.5K
Outflow
1 in every 26 people born in South Korea now lives abroad
The #39 largest source of emigrants worldwide
Top corridors
The largest migration routes in South Korea
Where people move to
Where people come from
Key moments
How migration has changed since 1990
1990
18.5K immigrants · 1.7M emigrants
1995
- A surge of arrivals — the foreign-born population jumped 185%
2000
- The foreign-born population passed 100K residents
2010
- A surge of arrivals — the foreign-born population jumped 138%
2015
- Surge of immigrants from China — 366K new arrivals
- The foreign-born population passed 1M residents
2020
- Surge of immigrants from Thailand — 97.2K new arrivals
Today
- Since 1990: 1.6M more foreign-born residents and 286K more citizens living abroad