The Korea Immigration Service of the Ministry of Justice on Sept. 25 said the number of international students in the country broke 300,000 for the first time. Shown are foreign students on Aug. 21 at the graduation ceremony of Dong-A University at the latter's Bumin campus in Busan's Seo-gu District. (Dong-A University)

By Lee Dasom

The number of international students in the country has broken 300,000 for the first time.

The Korea Immigration Service of the Ministry of Justice on Sept. 25 said the figure hit a record-high 305,329 as of last month.

Of the total, 225,769 students (D-2 visa) were attending university, 79,500 Korean-language education centers (D-4-1) and 60 foreign language training (D-4-7).

The number of foreign students steadily increased from 153,361 in 2020 to 163,699 in 2021 and 197,234 in 2022. It broke the 200,000 mark in 2023 with 226,507 and reached 263,775 last year.

By nationality, Vietnamese accounted for the most with 107,807, followed by Chinese (86,179), Uzbekistanis (18,155), Mongolians (17,870), Nepalese (15,515) and Myanmarese (8,903).

The expat population in the country as of last month was 2,729,609, down 0.03% from July.

dlektha0319@korea.kr