Number of expats rises 32-fold to 280,000 in Seoul

About 280,000 foreigners were living in Seoul as of 2011, a 32-fold increase from the total number 51 years ago, according to a survey, Thursday.

Seoul City’s annual statistics report showed that 279,095 registered foreigners were staying in Seoul as of Dec. 31; accounting for 2.65 percent of the capital’s total population.

In 1960, some 8,700 foreigners lived in the capital. The number has also more than quadrupled from that of 2000, which stood at 61,920.

“The rapid growth shows Seoul has become a globalized city attractive to foreigners. The actual number of the foreign population may be larger if those staying illegally are included,” a city official said.

Chinese people formed the largest community with 211,820 people, followed by 9,919 Americans, 8,111 Japanese and 6,407 Vietnamese.

Seoul’s total population, both Korean nationals and expats, rose 4.3-fold from 2.44 million in 1960 to 10.52 million 2011.

The report also showed that the number of citizens aged 65 and over jumped 19.3-fold from 54,000 in 1960 to 1.04 million in 2011. It means one of every 10 citizens was in that age group.

“The elderly population rose by 78.1 percent during the last 10 years. The aging of society is getting faster,” the official said.

The average age of a Seoul resident was 38.7 in 2011 — 14.8 years older than 23.9 in 1960 and 5.1 years older than a decade ago.

Back in 1960, the number of cars in the capital was five per 1,000 people, but skyrocketed to 283 last year, indicating that about seven out of 10 households own cars.

According to the report, 251 babies were born per day in 2011, while 110 people died. An average of 196 couples tied the knot daily while 56 couples divorced.

The number of daily subway users was 6.9 million with 4.6 million bus passengers. Passports were issued to 2,341 people and 26,835 foreign tourists visited Seoul each day last year.

The city used 128,501 megawatt hours of electric power and 127,000 barrels of oil and one person used 303 liters of water per day. In the capital, 983 crimes occurred daily, 15.1 fires broke out and 1.18 people died in traffic accidents. <The Korea Times/Kim Rahn>