By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter

Some 6.08 million Koreans were living overseas as of July 2003, recording a 7.56 percent increase from 2001, according to statistics released by the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry recently.

Among them, those residing in nations in the Asia-Pacific region other than China and Japan surged to about 196,000 by July 2003, an increase of 37.4 percent from July 2001. The jump can mainly be attributed to the large number of Koreans who emigrated to Australia or New Zealand over the period.

The biennial research also shows that the number of overseas Koreans residing in whole Asia-Pacific region increased by 11.57 percent to some 3 million during the period. While the number of Koreans living in China also increased by 13.6 percent to some 2.1 million, the figure for Japan declined by 0.26 percent to some 640,000.

Ethnic Koreans residing in North and South America rose by 2.43 percent to some 2.4 million, with some 2.1 million in the United States and 170,000 in Canada, registering 1.6 percent and 20.74 percent increases, respectively. Those in South America fell by 5.22 percent to some 105,000.

Europe has continued to be a favored place for Koreans, with the number residing there swelling to about 652,000, an increase of 9.6 percent. Those in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) reached some 557,000, a 6.9 percent rise, while other regions of Europe saw a 28.6 percent rise to some 94,400.

In the Middle East, the number of Koreans dwindled to some 6,600, a drop of 9.4 percent, possibly due to security problems exacerbated by the war in Iraq. The number in Africa also decreased to 5,095, a decline of 3.28 percent.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr