The Justice Ministry on Thursday released new official statistics that track where foreign residents in South Korea move and how many newly enter or leave the country.
The ministry said two datasets — “foreign residents’ domestic movement statistics” and “foreign residents’ new inflow and outflow statistics” — were newly designated as nationally approved statistics after review by the National Data Policy Committee.
Nationally approved statistics are government-certified data intended to ensure credibility and to serve as basic material for policy planning, the ministry said.
The domestic movement statistics compile quarterly figures on interregional moves, such as move-ins and move-outs, using address-change reports filed by foreign residents, including ethnic Koreans.
The inflow and outflow statistics compile monthly totals of new foreign registrations and departures after registration cancellations, allowing officials to track changes in the foreign resident population and the scale of inflows.
“The new statistics were prepared to reflect the growing number of foreign residents in South Korea and rising interest in immigration policy,” the ministry said.
As of last year, about 2.78 million foreign residents lived in South Korea, accounting for 5.4% of the total population.
The ministry said the data will be used as baseline material to estimate an appropriate level of foreign inflows, advance region-based immigration and border policies, and help local governments analyze demand related to foreign residents.
Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho said, “To make immigration administration more transparent, we will actively develop and open new statistics and continue to pursue immigration policy based on data.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.