Number of immigrants in South Korea down 2% in 2022

SEOUL: The number of immigrants, including naturalized citizens, in South Korea fell around 2 per cent on-year in 2022 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the government data showed on Tuesday.

The number of immigrants here reached 1.35 million as of May 2022, down from 1.38 million tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

Foreign nationals accounted for 1.3 million, down 2.2 per cent on-year, with naturalized citizens taking up 52,000, up 5.6 per cent over the period, Yonhap News Agency reported citing the data.

Among foreign nationals, those from China, including ethnic Koreans, accounted for 46.8 per cent, trailed by Vietnam with 13 per cent.

Other Asian countries accounted for 30.1 per cent.

The data showed 64.8 per cent of foreign nationals residing in South Korea had jobs in 2022, up 0.6 percentage point from a year earlier.

Naturalized citizens held a comparable figure of 65.3 per cent, also up 1.7 percentage points on-year.

The number of wage workers among foreign nationals came to 793,000 in 2022, down 2.3 per cent on-year.

Around 30 per cent of them earned a monthly income of 3 million won ($2,300) or higher, and 18.8 per cent made less than 2 million won.

Around 35 per cent of foreign nationals resided in Gyeonggi province, trailed by Seoul with 22 per cent.

More than 80 per cent of the immigrants considered their everyday life in South Korea "satisfactory", according to the agency.