Anchor: The number of South Korean residents with foreign or immigrant roots increased by more than five percent last year, according to government data released Monday. That number includes foreign nationals with legal residency, naturalized citizens and their children.
Rosyn Park reports.

Report: Five out of every 100 people in South Korea now have a foreign or immigrant background.

That number includes foreign nationals with legal residency, naturalized citizens and their children.

As of November 1, 2024, the demographic numbered two-million-715-thousand, accounting for five-point-two percent of total South Korean residents.

According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the figure represented a five-point-two percent increase from a year earlier, a steep growth rate compared to the zero-point-one percent increase recorded the previous year.

Foreign nationals of Korean descent accounted for 25 percent of the total, and men outnumbered women.

Those aged 15 to 64 numbered more than two-point two million, accounting for nearly 81-point-nine percent of the total, followed by children younger than 14 at 12-point-seven percent, and older adults 65 and up, making up just over five percent.

Kim Seo-young, director of the national data agency's Population Census Division, said that although the nation’s population is aging, those with foreign and immigrant backgrounds are relatively younger.

The group included 738-thousand children and adolescents under the age of 24, the data showed, accounting for more than 27 percent of the total demographic, an increase of 54-thousand from the previous year.

The most common nationality of their parents was Vietnamese, followed by Chinese nationals and Chinese nationals of Korean descent.

This is the first time the ministry has announced related statistics, highlighting the country’s changing demographics.
Rosyn Park, KBS World Radio News.