77% of Naturalized Koreans Are Women
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Three out of four people who became naturalized Korean citizens over the last five years are female.
According to the Ministry of Justice, 50,753 expatriates were naturalized in Korea from 2005 to June 2009, and 76.6 percent, or 38,911, were women.
By age, people in their 20s and 30s were the largest age groups to be naturalized, making up 30.7 percent and 30.5 percent, respectively. About 84.3 percent were Chinese.
"By age, gender ratio and their former nationality, married immigrants are on the increase," said Rep. Shin Hak-yong of the opposition Democratic Party. "The government should map out more supportive plans to embrace more multicultural families."
The government has recently changed naturalization test methods to allow more applicants to take the test and to shorten the waiting list.