Multucultural population - 국내 거주 외국인

  The number of multicultural residents in the country has more than tripled over the past decade to 1.74 million this year, according to government data released Sunday. The figure accounted for 3.4 percent of Korea's total population of 51.33 million. The figure included naturalized Koreans and their children, migrant workers, foreign students and immigrant spouses. Their number, which stood at about 540,000 in 2006 when the government began compiling related data, has since increased by an annual average of 14.4 percent.

  More than a third of them live in Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul, followed by the capital city with 26.3 percent and South Gyeongsang Province with 6.2 percent. Some districts in the Seoul metropolitian area are densely populated with foreign residents, with their cultures showing through. Korean society has become more open, globalized and multicultural in keeping with the steep increase in the number of foreign residents.

  In 2012, Korea became the world's seventh country with a polulation of more than 50 million to have its per capita income exceed $20,000. A growing presence of expatriates here has contributed to the nation achieving these landmark figures. Without the immigration of foreigh workers and spouses in particular, Korean's total population, which increased by an annual average of 0.6 percent over the decade until 2014, would be fallen.

  The country's gloomy long-term polulation projection calls for further boosting the upward trend in the number of foreign residents. With the fertility rate forecast to be stuck at the current level of 1.24 children per woman, Korea's polulation is estimated to be 170,000 short of the optimal number needed to guarantee sustainable growth in 20145.      

 

1) accounted for ~ : (부분, 비율을) 차지하다.  ~ 을 해명하다 / ~의 이유가 되다.

    cf. The poor weather may have accounted for the small crowd.

2) naturalized : 귀화한,   cf. be naturalized as a Korean citizen

3) densely : 밀집하여, 빽빽이 

4) show through : (뒤/아래에 있는 것이) 드러나 보이다. cf. The writing on the other side of the page shows through.

5) expatriate[_|eks^|peɪtriət] : (고국이 아닌) 국외거주자.

6) fertility rate : 출산율 (fertile : 비옥한  -> fertility : 번식력, 생식력)