No. of foreign workers rises to record 1.1 mil. in 2025

The number of foreign workers in Korea surpassed 1.1 million in 2025 to reach a record high, with the proportion of employed international students also sharply up, a survey showed Thursday. As of May, there were 1.69 million foreigners aged 15 or older residing in Korea, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the survey conducted by the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Among them, more than 1.1 million people were employed, rising 9.8 percent on-year. The figure was the highest since the ministry began compiling such data in 2017. Of those employed, the number of international students jumped by 23,000, or 71.8 percent, to 56,000 as the overall number of students coming to study in Korea increased amid the global popularity of Korean culture and government policies to attract more international students. The number of non-professional workers rose 6.1 percent to 321,000 and professional workers climbed 25.7 percent to 82,000, while the number of workers with permanent residence visas went up 17.1 percent to 123,000. By nationality, there were 341,000 Chinese nationals with ethn