Busan is good

Foreign Residents Account for 1.5% of Busan Population

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According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration, there were 54,394 foreign residents living in Busan as of January 1, 2014, up 2,777 people (5.4%) from last year. Foreign residents are defined as alien residents and their children who stay in Busan for more than 90 days as well as naturalized Korean citizens.

According to the statistics, foreign residents account for 1.5% of all residents in the City of Busan (about 3.5 million). This means that 1.5 out of 100 residents in Busan are foreign residents.

The data also showed the number of foreign workers, marriage migrants (including naturalized Korean citizens through marriage) and children of foreign residents are steadily rising while the number of foreign students in most local governments has decreased, with the exception of the capital area, due in large part to the increased requirements placed on foreign students wishing to enter Korean universities.  Students looking to apply to Korean schools must hold a score of level 3 or higher on the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK).    

The number of foreign residents who don’t have Korean nationality is 40,667 (74.8% of all foreign residents in Busan) while those who have Korean nationality is 4,705 (8.6%). There are 9,022 children of foreign residents in Busan.   

By nationality, Chinese ranked first with 20,106 (37%), followed by Vietnamese with 10,521 (19.3%), Filipinos with 2,825 (5.2%), Americans with 2,794 (5.1%) and Indonesians with 2,168 (4.0%), according to the data.

By residential districts, Saha-gu has the highest number of foreign residents with 6,326 (11.6%), followed by Sasang-gu with 5,987 (11.0%), Haeundae-gu with 5,770 (10.6%) and Gangseo-gu with 5,586 (10.3%).

The data shows that many foreign workers live around the industrial centers in Saha-gu, Sasang-gu, and Gangseo-gu while many Koreans with foreign nationalities and their families live in Haeundae-gu.    

As the number of foreign residents is steadily increasing, the City of Busan has established a comprehensive support plan for foreign residents in order to build a foreigner-friendly international city and also promotes policies uniquely tailored to suit foreign residents.  

The City of Busan firmly supports the management of the foreigner support centers in Busan including the Busan Global Center, the Busan Foreign Workers Support Center, the Busan International Foreign School, and the Foreign Student Support Center. The city also plans to improve the living environment in Sasang-gu, where there is a large concentration of foreign residents.

To attract foreign students to Busan, the city has enhanced career support for foreign students through cooperation with Busan-based universities and foreign student support councils to offer more internship programs, scholarships for foreign students from Southeast Asia, career lectures and job fairs. 

For more information, please contact the International Relations Division at (051) 888-3631.