The number of foreign students in South Korea has hit a record high, topping 100,000, the Justice Ministry said Monday.

According to the ministry’s statistics, the number of foreign students studying in Korea was 105,193 in March, up 10.6 percent from January.

The number saw a gradual decrease from 88,468 in 2011 to 81,847 in 2013, but started to bounce back in 2015 at 96,357. 

By nationality, there were 62,318 Chinese students, accounting for 59.2 percent of the total, followed by 8,293 Vietnamese at 7.8 percent, 5,262 Mongolians at 5 percent, 2,739 Japanese at 2.6 percent, 1,581 Uzbekistanis at 1.5 percent and 1,512 Indonesians at 1.4 percent.

By visa status, 73.2 percent of foreign students stay in Korea on the D-2 visa study abroad scheme, with the rest on the D-4-1 visa to study Korean or foreign languages.

As of March, there are 1.85 million foreign residents in Korea, down 1.2 percent from January.

Of them, 51 percent were from China, followed by 7.5 percent from the United States, 7.2 percent from Vietnam, 4.8 percent from Thailand, and 2.9 percent from the Philippines.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)