Foreign Patients in Korea Top 2 Million for the First Time — Setting a Record for the Third Straight Year, Becoming Asia's Medical Tourism Hub
2.01 million foreign patients visited Korea in 2025, surpassing the 2 million mark for the first time. China and Japan accounted for 60%, with a clear concentration in dermatology and plastic surgery.
The number of foreign patients who visited Korea last year surpassed 2 million for the first time. After a sharp drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, the figure has nearly doubled for three consecutive years, leading to assessments that Korea is establishing itself as the center of Asia’s medical tourism market.
First Time Surpassing 2 Million
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2.01 million foreign patients visited Korea in 2025 (2.72 million on a cumulative treatment-count basis). This is the first time the annual figure has exceeded 2 million since statistics began being compiled in 2009. The cumulative number of foreign patients since data collection began has now reached 7.06 million.
Foreign patient recruitment grew steadily at an average annual rate of 23.5% from 2009 to 2019, but plunged to 120,000 in 2020 due to COVID-19. Since then, the numbers have recovered, rising to 610,000 in 2023, 1.17 million in 2024, and 2.01 million in 2025 — roughly doubling every year for three straight years — setting a new all-time high for three consecutive years.
| Year | Foreign Patients (actual count) |
|---|---|
| 2019 | ~497,000 |
| 2020 | 120,000 |
| 2023 | 610,000 |
| 2024 | 1.17 million |
| 2025 | 2.01 million |
Jeong Eun-yeong, Director General of the Health Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated that with the record 2025 figure of 2.01 million patients, Korea has now firmly become Asia’s central hub, hosting more than 1 million foreign patients annually.
Growth Driven by Visa-Free Entry, Tax Benefits, and the Korean Wave
The background to last year’s rapid growth includes China’s visa-free entry policy, the VAT refund system for cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures, and the spread of Korean Wave content such as K-pop and K-beauty.
In 2025, foreign patients came from 201 countries, led by China, Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and Thailand. China and Japan together accounted for 60.6% (1.219 million) of the total, followed by Taiwan at 9.2% (186,000) and the United States at 8.6% (173,000). China in particular saw a 137.5% increase year-on-year, and Taiwan rose 122.5%.
The U.S. and Canada also saw increases of 70.4% and 59.1% respectively, reaching 173,000 and 24,000 patients — the highest figures since statistics began in 2009. For U.S. patients, dermatology, integrated internal medicine, and plastic surgery ranked highest at 44.3%, 13.2%, and 9.3% respectively, showing a spread across specialties rather than concentration solely on cosmetic procedures.
In Southeast Asia, Thailand (5th, 58,000, up 52.3%) and Singapore (6th, 43,000, up 62.1%) were followed by Indonesia (10th, 21,000, up 104.6%) and Malaysia (14th, 12,000, up 106.8%), which recorded the highest growth rates.
Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Lead the “Beauty Medicine” Boom
By specialty, dermatology dominated with 1.313 million patients (62.9%), followed by plastic surgery (233,000, 11.2%), integrated internal medicine (192,000, 9.2%), and health checkup centers (65,000, 3.1%).
Year-on-year growth rates were highest in dermatology (86.2%), dentistry (79.0%), plastic surgery (64.3%), obstetrics/gynecology (62.6%), and integrated internal medicine (54.9%), reflecting an increasingly pronounced trend toward beauty- and procedure-centered medical consumption.
Thailand (dermatology up 62.0%, plastic surgery up 140.9%) and Singapore (dermatology up 56.9%, plastic surgery up 280.1%) also showed particularly high growth rates in dermatology and plastic surgery visits.
Concentration in Seoul Remains High; Clinics Dominate
87.2% (approximately 1.755 million) of foreign patients received treatment in Seoul, followed by Busan (3.8%), Gyeonggi (2.7%), Jeju (2.3%), and Incheon (1.3%). This is attributed to the concentration of 2,555 registered medical institutions in Seoul as of 2025, accounting for 62.5% of the national total.
By institution size, clinics accounted for 87.7% of visits, the largest share, followed by general hospitals (3.6%) and tertiary general hospitals (3.0%) — indicating that neighborhood specialty clinics, particularly in dermatology and plastic surgery, form the core of the market rather than large hospitals.
“Pursuing Qualitative Growth and Industrial Competitiveness”
Director General Jeong Eun-yeong stated that the ministry plans to build a sustainable industrial ecosystem and growth foundation suited to an era where more than 1 million annual patients is the new normal, pursuing qualitative growth and stronger industrial competitiveness in the foreign patient recruitment sector, adding that the ministry will continue to monitor the situation to ensure Korean citizens’ access to medical care is not disrupted as foreign patient recruitment expands.
The Korea Health Industry Development Institute publishes detailed statistics by gender, age, and treatment type each year in its “Statistical Analysis Report on Foreign Patient Attraction Performance,” with related information available at the Medical Korea information system (medicalkorea.or.kr).