Foreign students in S. Korea top 500,000 for 1st time on Korean cultural boom

Sept. 10 (Yonhap) — The number of foreigners coming to study in South Korea surpassed 500,000 for the first time last year, a more than sixfold increase over four years, driven by the global popularity of Korean pop culture, government data showed Thursday

Some 505,410 of the 18.94 million foreign visitors to South Korea last year entered for “study or training” purposes, accounting for 2.7 percent of all arrivals, according to the data from the Korea Tourism Organization released by Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the ruling Democratic Party.

The figure marks a sharp rebound from just 80,084 in 2021, when the country was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and represents steady annual growth to 152,195 in 2022, 313,980 in 2023 and 435,129 in 2024 before crossing the 500,000 threshold last year.

Of all the arrivals last year, more than 83 percent, or 15.82 million, visited for tourism, while business and official duty purposes accounted for 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, of the visits.

Jin, who is a member of the parliamentary committee on culture and tourism, attributed the surge to growing interest in Korean language study and formal degree programs spurred by the global boom of Korean cultural products, such as K-pop and dramas.

“The global spread of K-content is now bearing fruit not only in short-term tourism but also in long-term stays, such as study and training,” Jin said in a release.

She called for “tailored policy support” to help foreign students and trainees better adapt to local communities as the government seeks to sustain the momentum.