The number of kindergarteners and elementary, middle, and high school students has decreased for 20 consecutive years. In contrast, the number of multicultural students and foreign exchange students has reached an all-time high.
The Ministry of Education and the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) announced on the 28th the results of the '2025 Education Basic Statistics' survey, which gathered data as of April 1 of this year on the status of nationwide kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools, and higher education institutions.
The total number of kindergarten and elementary, middle, and high school students is 5,551,250. This is a decrease of 2.3% (133,495 students) compared to last year (5,684,745 students). The student population peaked at 10.31 million in 1986 and has been on the decline since 2006.
By class, the number of elementary students is 2,345,488, a decrease of 149,517 (6.0%) from last year, marking the largest decline. Following this in terms of decline are kindergarteners (3.4%, 17,079 students) and high school students (0.4%, 4,859 students).
In contrast, the number of middle school students has increased by 37,506 (2.8%) to 137,356. The number of other school students also rose by 454 (0.8%) to 54,415.
The number of multicultural students in elementary, middle, and high schools has exceeded 200,000 for the first time since the 2012 survey. The total is 202,208, which is an increase of 8,394 (4.3%) from last year. Consequently, the proportion of multicultural students compared to the total domestic student population is 4.0%, up 0.2 percentage points from last year.
The number of schools has also decreased, now standing at 20,374, a decrease of 106 (0.5%) from last year. This decline is largely attributed to a reduction in kindergartens to 8,141, a decrease of 153. This makes kindergartens the only level among kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools to see a reduction. The number of elementary schools is 6,192 (up 9), middle schools is 3,292 (up 20), high schools is 2,387 (up 7), and other schools is 362 (up 11).
The number of teachers is 506,100, a decrease of 3,142 (0.6%) from last year. The number of elementary school teachers has decreased to 193,071, a drop of 3,527, which is the largest decline. There are 55,223 kindergarten teachers, down 181, and 128,333 high school teachers, down 1,103. The number of middle school teachers has increased by 1,266 to 116,046.
The student-to-teacher ratio is 8.7 students per teacher in kindergarten, 12.1 in elementary school, 11.8 in middle school, and 10.1 in high school. The ratios for kindergarten and elementary school have decreased by 0.3 and 0.6 students, respectively. In contrast, the middle school ratio has increased by 0.2. The high school ratio remains the same as last year.
The number of foreign exchange students in higher education institutions stands at 253,434 based on enrolled students, an increase of 44,472 (21.3%) from last year. This is the highest on record.
By country, China has the largest number of foreign students at 76,541 (30.2%), followed by Vietnam (75,144, 29.7%), Uzbekistan (15,786, 6.2%), Mongolia (15,270, 6.0%), and Nepal (12,784, 5.0%).
The total number of higher education institutions in the country is 421, reflecting a decrease of one institution. This change is due to the merger of Gyeongbuk National University with Andong University.
The total number of teachers in higher education institutions is 240,624, an increase of 3,644 (1.5%) from last year. The number of full-time faculty is 86,701, down 617 (0.7%), while the number of non-full-time faculty is 153,923, an increase of 4,261 (2.8%).