Foreign exchange students wearing the traditional clothes of their home countries on Nov. 7, 2024, wave their national flags and smile on Ajou International Day, an event at Ajou University in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do Province. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Jihae

The number of areas with high concentrations of expats is surging particularly outside the Seoul metropolitan area.

The Migration Research and Training Centre announced this on July 22, citing the rise of places with high expat populations where the number of foreign residents is at least 10,000 or if they comprise 5% or more of the population.

The number of such areas reached 127 nationwide in 2023, up 31% from 97 in 2022 and comprising over half of the country's 229 cities, districts and counties.

The average foreign population of such areas in the capital region was 27,538, about three times the 9,391 living outside of Greater Seoul.

In 2016, 41 or 63% of the 65 expat-rich areas were in the capital region and 24 or 37% outside of it.

The number of foreign residents had been relatively high in the provinces of Chungcheong-do and Gyeongsang-do, but the figures have also risen in other regions such as Jeolla-do. Expat-heavy locations not in Greater Seoul numbered 79, a 300% jump, while the capital region saw a slight increase to 48.

By province, Jeollabuk-do saw the number of such areas soar from one to 10 and Jeollanam-do from two to 11. That of Chungcheongnam-do went from three to 13 and that of Gyeongsangbuk-do from four to 12.

Gangwon-do Province went from having no such regions to three and Daejeon from zero to one, but most expat-rich areas were still in Greater Seoul.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said that as of November 2023, the number of expats who had lived in Korea for three months or longer was 2.46 million, the highest since compilation of related statistics started in 2006.

jihlee08@korea.kr