More foreigners are living in Korea each year. The number of alien registrations has already jumped to 1.409 million in 2012, up from 1.139 million at the end of 2010, according to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.

The population of non-Koreans now accounts for 2.8 percent of the nation's total population of 50.734 million. The data does not include illegal foreign workers.

Seoul's Yeongdeungpo district had the largest number of expats with 14.4 percent, followed by Geumcheon (11.5 percent) and Guro (10.1 percent), two other districts in the capital, and Yeongam in South Jeolla Province (9.4 percent).