By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff reporter
More than two out of every 100 residents here are either foreign nationals or immigrants with Korean citizenship and their children, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said Friday.
It said those who were born outside Korea and their children numbered 1.14 million this year, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier, and accounting for 2.3 percent of the nation's registered residents. They include non-Korean workers staying here over 90 days, and foreign immigrants and their children.
The ministry said the number of "foreign-origin" residents grew at a much slower rate than in previous years. From 2006 through 2009, it surged by more than 20 percent.
"With the worldwide economic slump, local companies employed fewer migrant workers. Additionally, fewer foreign women from Southeast Asian countries came here to marry Korean men," a ministry official said.
Migrant workers, English teachers and other foreign nationality holders stood at 921,000, accounting for 80.8 percent of the total, while those who were naturalized in Korea numbered 96,000, or 8.5 percent of the total. Their children numbered 122,000, or 10.7 percent.
By nationality, Chinese accounted for 55.9 percent of the total, followed by those from Southeast Asian countries and U.S. citizens. Nearly 65 percent of them reside in Seoul, Incheon or Gyeonggi Province.