South Korea has reached a new record of foreign residents. This change is especially important because many Vietnamese students are now studying in Korean universities.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety counted 2,662,967 foreign residents on Nov 1 2025. That is 3.1% more than a year earlier and makes up 5.1% of the country’s 51.8 million people.

International students grew the fastest of all groups, rising 17.6% to 274,329, according to the ministry report. This shows a strong increase in people coming to study.

Vietnamese students became the largest group of international students, with 96,834 students or 31.5% of all international students, the Education Ministry data said. Vietnamese people are also the second‑largest non‑citizen group with 318,090 members and they make up 23.7% of naturalized citizens, the Korea Economic Daily reported.