Where Korea's International Students Actually Come From

Korea passed 300,000 international students, and the intake is far more concentrated than most people expect: a handful of countries account for the large majority of everyone studying here. Here is the ranking by the number of students currently in Korea on a D-2 or D-4-1 visa, using Ministry of Justice immigration statistics as of July 2026: 1. Vietnam - 124,380 students 2. China - 72,673 students 3. Uzbekistan - 21,873 students 4. Nepal - 20,886 students 5. Mongolia - 18,570 students 6. Bangladesh - 7,157 students 7. Kyrgyzstan - 2,815 students 8. Pakistan - 2,577 students 9. Indonesia - 2,472 students Vietnam alone sends more students than every country below second place combined, and Vietnam and China together make up the clear majority of the total. That concentration is why so much of the practical advice you find online is written with Vietnamese and Chinese applicants in mind - and why applicants from smaller groups often struggle to find answers that actually apply to them. Why this matters for choosing a university: the size of your national group on a given campus affects real things. It changes whether the international office has handled documents from your country's institutions before, whether there is a student association you can join, and whether a senior who went through the same visa process is available to ask. None of that shows up in a ranking table, but it shapes your first year more than most people expect. Source: Ministry of Justice (법무부) immigration statistics, D-2 and D-4-1 visa holders, as of July 2026. Each country's own page on StudyToKorea covers the visa, document and financial-proof rules that apply specifically to applicants from there.