Foreigner residents projected to reach around 7% of population by 2042

This image, provided by Yonhap News TV on Oct. 18, 2018, depicts foreign workers. [YONHAP]

The number of foreign residents in Korea is projected to increase steadily and their proportion of the country's total population could rise to around 7 percent by 2042, Statistics Korea said Thursday.

Foreigners residing in Korea for three months or longer came to 1.65 million in 2022, accounting for 3.2 percent of the country's total population of 50.02 million.

The number is expected to rise to 2.85 million in 2042, with foreigners making up 5.7 percent of the country's total population.

Their proportion could reach as high as 6.9 percent by that time, the statistics agency added.

Korea's total population is projected to be on a constant decline to reach 46.77 million in 2042 from the peak of 51.75 million in 2024.

Such demographic changes are forecast to be noticeable among the working age population.

The total population aged 15 to 64 is projected to shrink to 25.73 million in 2042 from 35.27 million in 2022.

But the number of foreigners in this age group could rise to 2.36 million in 2042 from 1.47 million in 2022. This means that the proportion of foreigners could more than double to 8.4 percent.

The number of the so-called migration background population — naturalized foreigners and their children, as well as foreign residents — is forecast to hit 4.04 million in 2042, or 8.1 percent of the total population.

The comparable figure for 2022 came to 2.2 million, which accounted for 4.3 percent of the total, the data showed.

Korea's demographic picture is facing drastic changes due to its chronically low birthrate and population aging.

The country's total fertility rate, which is the average number of expected births from a woman in her lifetime, fell to a record quarterly low of 0.65 in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Yonhap