South Korea population rises for 1st time in 3 years on foreign workers

SEOUL -- South Korea's population increased for the first time in three years, growing 0.2% last year to 51.77 million, as an inflow of foreign residents outweighed the decline caused by a low birth rate, government data released Monday shows.

The main driver was a 10.4% jump in foreign nationals to 1.93 million as of Nov. 1, making up 3.7% of the total. Statistics Korea, which conducts the survey, counts residents who have been in the country for at least three months.