The number of economically active foreigners in South Korea surpassed 1 million as of May this year for the first time, government data showed Thursday.

According to data by Statistics Korea, the total number of foreign residents aged 15 or older came at 1.42 million in May, rising 3.7 percent from a year earlier.


Among foreign residents, the number of economically active population inched up 1.9 percent in May from a year earlier to hit over 1 million.

The number of foreigners working in Asia’s fourth-largest economy inched up 2.6 percent to reach 962,000 in May, data showed.

The growth rate in the number of foreign employees has slowed this year, compared to a 12.1 percent gain in 2014 and 10.1 percent rise in 2015.

By sector, 45.4 percent worked in manufacturing and another 19.7 percent in wholesale, retail, restaurants and accommodations.

By nationality, Chinese nationals of Korean descent totaled 441,000, or 45.9 percent, out of 962,000 working foreigners. Vietnamese came next at 7.4 percent, followed by Chinese of non-Korean descent at 6.6 percent and people from North American at 4.7 percent.

By age, foreigners in their 30s took up the largest proportion with 29.2 percent, followed by those between 15 and 29 with 26.6 percent.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)