August was the busiest month for foreign nationals entering South Korea in 2025, with 9.7% of the year's arrivals, and January the quietest, with 6.0%. August and October together accounted for 18.9%. This counts every foreign national entering, not only visitors.
An entry count, not a visitor count. South Korea's Ministry of Justice counts foreign nationals entering the country, whatever the reason for the trip.1 It is not the tourism organisation's count of visitors, which we could not find under an open licence.
South Korea, month by month
- Two busiest months
- Other months
When do the most foreign nationals enter South Korea, and when the fewest?
August had the most foreign nationals entering South Korea in 2025, with 9.7% of the year's total. January had the fewest, with 6.0%. That makes August 1.6 times as busy as January.1
Three months each had less than an average month's share of 8.3%: January, February and December.
Which nationalities entered South Korea most?
The largest group were nationals of China, with 28.2% of foreign nationals entering South Korea in 2025, followed by Japan (18.9%) and Taiwan (9.8%).1
| Nationality | Share |
|---|---|
| China | 28.2% |
| Japan | 18.9% |
| Taiwan | 9.8% |
| United States | 8.1% |
| Vietnam | 3.2% |
Shares are of foreign nationals entering South Korea in 2025. Country names are our English translation of the Korean labels. KOSIS lists Chinese nationals of Korean descent (한국계중국인) separately, with 271,214 entries; they are not in the China figure. The Philippines was sixth, with 629,772 entries, also 3.2%.
What exactly is counted?
KOSIS, the Korean government's statistics portal, publishes the Ministry of Justice's monthly count of foreign nationals entering South Korea, by nationality. It goes by nationality, not where people live.1
Other countries count arrivals differently, which is why we do not rank South Korea against the others on the overview page.
June or September? May or October?
June was quieter than September, at 8.5% against 8.9%.
May was quieter than October, at 8.6% against 9.2%.
These compare months at similar distances from the middle of the year. They say nothing about weather, which we have not measured.
What these figures cannot tell you
Arrivals are not crowds. A month with many arrivals can still feel quiet if visitors stay briefly or spread out, and a national total cannot show how busy one city, park or beach is.
They say nothing about length of stay, weather or prices. This page has no weather or price data.
Entries, not people. The Ministry of Justice notes, for its related monthly file of foreign entrants, that someone who enters several times is counted each time.2
They are one year. These are 2025 figures, and patterns shift from year to year.
The full year
| Month | Share of year | Arrivals |
|---|---|---|
| January | 6.0% | 1,167,417 |
| February | 6.2% | 1,215,183 |
| March | 8.5% | 1,669,435 |
| April | 9.0% | 1,753,482 |
| May | 8.6% | 1,680,220 |
| June | 8.5% | 1,668,645 |
| July | 9.1% | 1,785,740 |
| August (one of the two busiest months) | 9.7% | 1,892,007 |
| September | 8.9% | 1,750,611 |
| October (one of the two busiest months) | 9.2% | 1,802,606 |
| November | 8.4% | 1,639,365 |
| December | 8.0% | 1,560,003 |
Total for 2025: 19,584,714 foreign nationals entering South Korea. The two busiest months are marked.
Key takeaways
- January was the quietest month for foreign nationals entering South Korea in 2025, with 6.0% of the year's arrivals.
- August and October were the busiest, with 18.9% between them.
- June was quieter than September, at 8.5% against 8.9%.
- What we would skip: comparing these percentages with another country's. Each country counts arrivals its own way.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from South Korea's Ministry of Justice, a South Korean government ministry, through the KOSIS statistics portal. We downloaded the monthly figures and calculated the shares and comparisons ourselves. See how we research.
- Source: Ministry of Justice (법무부), 「출입국자및체류외국인통계」, table 「국적(지역) 및 월별 외국인 입국자」 (foreign nationals entering, by nationality and month), DT_091_111_2009_S005A, January–December 2025, data updated 28 July 2026, via KOSIS (Korean Statistical Information Service). Read it. Accessed 24 September 2026; table details checked 25 September 2026. Reused under the KOSIS statistical information use guidelines, which allow commercial use with the source stated.
- Ministry of Justice, monthly foreign entrants by nationality (공공데이터포털 file 15099989), file description. Read it. Checked 24 September 2026.
Changes we made. The monthly shares, rankings of months and comparisons are our own calculations from the published counts. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so they may not add exactly.