Genetik
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Genetik/Peoples/Koreans

Koreans

Корейцы · Q484464

language area per Glottologcensus counts
1,830,929
China, census 2010 (ethnicity / nationality)
2,094,776
sum of censuses in 16 countries, 2001-2021
Koreanic
language family (Glottolog)

In brief

The largest documented number lives in China: 1,830,929 people in the 2010 census.

Official figures exist for 16 countries; together they add up to 2,094,776. This is not an estimate of the world total: the censuses were held in different years (2001-2021) and define belonging differently, and countries without such data are not counted.

In Russia's 2020 census (reference date 1 October 2021), 87,819 people identified with the nationality "Корейцы" (Koreans)1. That is 0.07% of the 130,587,364 residents who stated a nationality.

Rosstat also assigns 4 other self-designations to this nationality (listed in Russian in the source table).

Main language: Korean. Glottolog classifies it in the Koreanic family.

Where they live: census figures

Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.

China2010 · ethnicity / nationality · «朝鲜族» · [2]
1,830,929
Kazakhstan2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [3]
118,450
Russia2021 · ethnicity / nationality · «Корейцы» · [1]
87,819
Kyrgyzstan2009 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [4]
17,299
Thailand2010 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [5]
14,569
Ukraine2001 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [6]
12,711
Philippines2020 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [7]
7,789
Guam2010 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [8]
3,437
Tajikistan2010 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [9]
634
Belarus2019 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [10]
400
Estonia2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [11]
208
Latvia2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [12]
175
American Samoa2020 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [13]
136
Palau2005 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [14]
83
Moldova, Republic of2014 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [15]
75
Lithuania2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Korean» · [16]
62
Sum across 16 countries2,094,776

In detail: Russia, 2021 census

Sex, urban and rural, Russian regions

Sex

Men 44,397 · 50.6%Women 43,422 · 49.4%

Urban and rural

Urban 62,055 · 70.7%Rural 25,764 · 29.3%

Where: the 10 regions with the largest numbers

Sakhalin Oblast
16,060
Primorsky Krai
7,785
Rostov Oblast
7,435
Moscow (city)
4,529
Stavropol Krai
4,263
Moscow Oblast
3,943
Khabarovsk Krai
3,740
Volgograd Oblast
3,246
Kabardino-Balkar Republic
2,926
Krasnodar Krai
2,811

Source [1]: Rosstat, 2020 census, vol. 5, table 1

Languages and their lineage

Korean

  1. Koreanickore1284
  2. Koreankore1280

People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.

Sources

  1. Rosstat. National composition of the population of the Russian Federation. Results of the 2020 All-Russian Population Census (reference date 1 October 2021), vol. 5, table 1. Tom5_tab1_VPN-2020.xlsx (archived copy)
  2. National Bureau of Statistics of China. 2-1 全国各民族分年龄、性别的人口 (Tabulation on the 2010 Population Census of the PRC, table 2-1). https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/pcsj/rkpc/6rp/html/A0201.htm
  3. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Kazakhstan, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  4. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Kyrgyzstan, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  5. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Thailand, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  6. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Ukraine, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  7. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Philippines, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  8. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Guam, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  9. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Tajikistan, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  10. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Belarus, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  11. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Estonia, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  12. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Latvia, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  13. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. American Samoa, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  14. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Palau, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  15. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Republic of Moldova, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  16. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Lithuania, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  17. Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)