Where Do Vietnamese Students in Korea Live? After Gyeonggi and Seoul Come Gyeongbuk, Busan and Daejeon

How many Vietnamese students are studying in Korea, and where across the country do they live? According to international-student management data from the Korea Immigration Service under the Ministry of Justice (reference date December 31, 2025), there are a total of 108,099 Vietnamese students residing in Korea. When the portion whose host institution is confirmed in the registration records is tallied by province and metropolitan city, a fairly clear map of where Vietnamese students live and study comes into view. For Vietnamese students and parents preparing to study in Korea, knowing "which regions have the most fellow nationals, and which cities have the heaviest concentration of universities" is a first clue to gauging quality of life and settlement conditions.

Ranking by Region — Gyeonggi and Seoul on Top, the Provinces Right Behind

The number of Vietnamese students by region, among those whose host institution is confirmed, breaks down as follows. First place goes to Gyeonggi-do with 15,782, and second to Seoul with 11,948 — the two dominate. Behind them come Gyeongsangbuk-do with 10,465, Busan with 7,411, Daejeon with 6,496, and Chungcheongnam-do with 6,200. They are followed by Jeonbuk State with 4,739, Daegu with 4,126, Gwangju with 3,976, and Gangwon State with 3,609.

The full ranking of all 17 regions (by number of students) is below.

1. Gyeonggi-do — 15,782 2. Seoul — 11,948 3. Gyeongsangbuk-do — 10,465 4. Busan — 7,411 5. Daejeon — 6,496 6. Chungcheongnam-do — 6,200 7. Jeonbuk State — 4,739 8. Daegu — 4,126 9. Gwangju — 3,976 10. Gangwon State — 3,609 11. Chungcheongbuk-do — 3,379 12. Jeollanam-do — 3,305 13. Gyeongsangnam-do — 2,578 14. Incheon — 1,164 15. Ulsan — 522 16. Jeju — 432 17. Sejong — 319

Capital Region vs. Provincial Hubs — Not a One-Sided Story

The most striking fact is the concentration in the capital region. Combining Gyeonggi-do (15,782) and Seoul (11,948) yields 27,730 — heavier than any single region among those with confirmed institutions. Given that the two areas have thick concentrations of jobs, living infrastructure and established Vietnamese communities, this is a natural flow.

But the real significance of the data lies in the fact that, even so, it is "not a capital-region monopoly." Gyeongsangbuk-do (10,465), which trails the capital region directly, is close in scale to Seoul, while non-capital hubs such as Busan (7,411), Daejeon (6,496) and Chungcheongnam-do (6,200) are each very large, in the 6,000-to-10,000 range. In other words, Vietnamese students are not clustered only in Seoul and Gyeonggi; they are broadly distributed across provincial hub cities in the Yeongnam region (Gyeongbuk, Busan, Daegu, Gyeongnam) and the Chungcheong region (Daejeon, Chungnam, Chungbuk). From the standpoint of someone choosing where to study, this means the options are not confined to the capital region.

The Case of Daejeon — A City with High Per-Campus Density

Beyond regional scale, "density per institution" is also a useful indicator for reading settlement conditions. A prime example is Daejeon. Daejeon has 6,496 Vietnamese students enrolled across 12 universities, which works out to roughly 540 students per institution as a simple average. It ranks fifth in headcount, but because the students are concentrated in a relatively small number of universities, on a per-campus basis it is a city where the odds of meeting fellow Vietnamese students are high. Even with the same headcount, a region where students are spread thinly across many universities feels different from one where they are gathered densely in a few. For students and parents who weigh living costs and settlement conditions together, this kind of "concentration" is a practical reference point.

Methodology — What Was Counted, and What Was Left Out

There are limitations that must be noted when interpreting the figures. First, this tally is based on current enrollment, not on the number of newly issued study visas. That is, it is not the number of people who arrived in a given year, but a snapshot of Vietnamese students studying in Korea as of the reference date.

Second, the regional ranking above covers only those whose host institution is confirmed in the registration records. The 21,648 students (about 20% of the total 108,099) whose host institution is not confirmed were excluded from the regional tally. As a result, the sum of the figures for the 17 regions above does not match the overall total, and the actual distribution could shift somewhat depending on where the unidentified 20% are scattered. Even so, the confirmed 80% alone clearly conveys the big picture: "the capital region has the most, but provincial hubs such as Gyeongbuk, Busan and Daejeon carry substantial weight."

In Summary

As of the reference date of December 31, 2025, the map of the 108,099 Vietnamese students living in Korea is not a simple one. The Gyeonggi-Seoul capital region (27,730) sits at the peak, but the non-capital hubs that follow — Gyeongsangbuk-do (10,465), Busan (7,411) and Daejeon (6,496) — support a comparable share of the country's role as a study-abroad destination. The message this data offers Vietnamese students and parents weighing where to study is clear: studying in Korea is not a Seoul-and-Gyeonggi-only proposition, and once living costs, settlement conditions and per-campus concentration are factored in, provincial hub cities can be a thoroughly reasonable alternative.

Source: International-student management data, Korea Immigration Service, Ministry of Justice (Public Data Portal, data.go.kr, dataset 3069982), second half of 2025, reference date 2025-12-31, KOGL Type 1. The regional tally is based on students with a confirmed host institution; the 21,648 unidentified students (about 20%) are excluded. Figures reflect current enrollment, not newly issued study visas.