The number of residents with foreign nationalities and those who have naturalized living in South Korea has reached 1.76 million as of 2016, 3.4 percent of the entire population, data by Statistics Korea released by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security showed. This is a 3.1 percent increase from 2015, and a threefold surge from 2006 when the first set of statistics was gathered.

Most, or 32.4 percent, were residing in Gyeonggi Province followed by 22.9 percent in Seoul and 6.5 percent in South Gyeongsang Province.

Of 1.41 million that hold foreign nationalities, 91.1 percent came from Asian countries, with 53.1 percent of them from Northeast Asia. Of the total foreign residents, 48.9 percent were from China.