The number of foreign residents in South Korea has fallen below the two-million mark for the first time in over five years amid the pandemic.

The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday, that as of March, the total foreign population in Korea stood at around one-point-99 million, down nine-point-two percent from a year ago. 

This marks the first time the foreign population has sunk below two million since December 2015, when the number was around 1-point-89 million.

The report showed that Chinese nationals accounted for the lion's share of the population here at 43-point-four percent, or about 868-thousand. That was followed by Vietnamese at 10-point-6 percent, and then Thai and U.S. citizens at eight-point-nine and seven-point-three percent, respectively.