Foreign residents rise nationwide, but Jeju alone sees a decline... Youth outmigration and rural migration fall

【Financial News Jeju = Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 Last year, the number of foreign residents on Jeju fell by 64, making it the only one of the country’s 17 provinces and metropolitan cities to record a decline. Jeju’s total population with a migration background rose by just 239, while domestic population movements resulted in net outmigration of 4,273, signaling a shift in population trends on an island that once led a migration boom.
According to the “2025 Migration Background Population Statistics” released by the National Data Office on the 26th, as of November 1 last year, Jeju had 40,550 residents with a migration background, up 239 (0.6%) from 40,311 the previous year. That was well below the nationwide growth rate of 3.5%.
A person with a migration background is someone who has a migration background or has at least one parent with a migration background. The category includes not only foreign nationals but also naturalized citizens, second-generation immigrants and North Korean defectors. It is distinct from the movement between regions of Korean nationals who have changed their place of residence within the country.
Residents with a migration background accounted for 6.1% of Jeju’s total population of 669,354, 0.7 percentage points above the national average of 5.4%. Jeju ranked fourth nationwide, behind South Chungcheong Province (8.3%) and North Chungcheong Province and Gyeonggi Province (6.5% each).
Although their share of the total population was high, the rate of increase followed a different pattern from the national trend.
The number of foreign nationals living on Jeju fell by 64, from 30,511 in 2024 to 30,447 last year. Over the same period, the nationwide number rose by 66,313 (3.2%), from 2,042,744 to 2,109,057. The number of foreign nationals increased in all 16 provinces and metropolitan cities other than Jeju.
By contrast, the number of Korean nationals with a migration background in Jeju rose by 303, from 9,800 to 10,103. The number of people who acquired Korean nationality through naturalization or acknowledgment increased from 2,823 to 2,962, while the number of second-generation immigrants rose from 6,446 to 6,608.

In effect, the overall population with a migration background increased slightly because the increase among those with Korean nationality was greater than the decline in foreign nationals. However, as the statistics do not separately distinguish between nationality acquisition, international arrivals and departures, and movement between regions, it is difficult to pinpoint the reason for the decline in foreign residents.
Nationwide, the population with a migration background increased by 94,510, from 2,715,074 in 2024 to 2,809,584 last year, accounting for 5.4% of the total population. People of working age, 15 to 64, made up 81.9% of this population. Among people in their 20s and 30s, those with a migration background accounted for 10.0% and 9.5% of each age group’s total population, respectively.
As the increase in foreign nationals on Jeju has stalled, domestic population outflows have continued as well. According to separate domestic migration statistics from the National Data Office, 77,588 people moved to Jeju last year and 81,861 left, resulting in net outmigration of 4,273. Jeju has recorded net outmigration for three consecutive years, following 1,687 in 2023 and 3,361 in 2024.
This is a contrast with the period when Jeju saw a large influx of people from elsewhere. In 2016, arrivals outnumbered departures by 14,632, but the net inflow slowed afterward, and the trend shifted to net outmigration in 2023.
By age, the outflow of young people stood out. Last year, the net outmigration rate for people in their 20s on Jeju was 3.2%, the second-highest nationwide after North Gyeongsang Province (3.9%). In absolute terms, about 2,200 people in their 20s left Jeju for other provinces on net.
The net outmigration rate for teenagers also reached 1.5%. The rates were 0.3% for people in their 30s, 0.1% for those in their 40s and 0.2% for those in their 50s. In other words, departures outnumbered arrivals among middle-aged and older people as well.

The Seoul metropolitan area also accounts for a significant share of people moving from Jeju to other regions. Last year, Jeju experienced net outmigration of about 1,900 people to the Seoul metropolitan area. In other words, more people left for the capital region than moved from there to Jeju.
Statistics on rural migration also show that the appeal of settling on Jeju is waning. According to the “2025 Status of People Moving to Farming, Fishing and Rural Areas in North Jeolla, South Jeolla and Jeju,” released last September by the Honam Regional Data Office, Jeju had 9,731 rural migrants last year, down 609 (5.9%) from 10,340 the previous year.
It was the first time in 11 years, since 2014, that the annual number of rural migrants to Jeju fell below 10,000. The number declined from 12,307 in 2021 to 11,767 in 2022, 10,690 in 2023 and 10,340 in 2024, and the downward trend continued last year. It fell by 2,576 (20.9%) over four years.
In particular, 5,409 of last year’s rural migrants moved to Jeju from other provinces, down 135 (2.4%) from 5,544 the previous year. The number of rural migrants who moved within Jeju to areas classified as towns or townships also fell from the previous year, to 4,322.
The importance of employment is clear among the factors people consider when choosing to move to Jeju. Among the reasons given by households that moved to rural areas on Jeju last year, employment ranked highest at 31.7%. Housing-related reasons accounted for 19.3%, and the natural environment for 8.5%. Employment was also a major reason for both arrivals and departures in population movements between Jeju and other provinces.
It would be difficult to say that the trend of people moving to Jeju for its natural environment has disappeared entirely. However, with rural migration declining and young people continuing to leave on net, jobs and housing conditions that enable people to settle in the region are emerging as key challenges for population policy.
It is also noteworthy that Jeju is experiencing both a decline in foreign nationals and net domestic outmigration at a time when the population with a migration background is increasing nationwide. Going forward, Jeju’s population policy will need to consider not only the scale of efforts to attract people from outside the island, but also the settlement of young and middle-aged and older residents, and the conditions that allow residents with migration backgrounds to stay long term.


[email protected] Jeong Yong-bok Reporter