The number of foreigners living in South Korea exceeded 1.2 million in the first half of this year due to an increasing number of short-term visitors, a government report showed Tuesday.
There were 1,208,544 foreigners staying in the country as of the end of June, up 4.6 percent from 1,155,654 a year earlier, the Justice Ministry said in its report.
The increase came mainly from the number of short-term visitors, which grew by 13.5 percent on-year, the report noted, while foreigners staying longer than 90 days increased 0.4 percent.
Foreign students and marriage migrants grew 8.4 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively, compared to last year, the report said.
The number of illegal immigrants went down 7 percent to 174,049, accounting for 14.4 percent of the total number of foreign residents in the country, it said.
By nationality, Chinese citizens, including ethnic Koreans with Chinese citizenship, accounted for nearly half of the total foreign population, followed by those from Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and Cambodia.
Meanwhile, the number of people going in and out of South Korea surpassed 20 million for the first time, marking a 21 percent increase in the first half of this year, according to the report. The increase is due to a 31.7 percent surge in overseas travel by South Koreans, officials said.
"The sharp increase is attributed to the recovering domestic economy and demand for overseas trips, which had faltered due to the sluggish economy and the outbreak of Influenza A," an official at the immigration office said. "Given the summer vacation and holiday period in July and August, the upward trend is expected to continue."
