Jeju Province announced that foreign residents numbered 15,658 as of Jan. 1, 2014, a 23 percent increase on 2013. Foreigners accounted for 2.6 percent of all registered Jeju residents.

The largest group was foreign workers, accounting for 33.5 percent, foreign spouses were 12 percent and students 10.3 percent. There were a total of 1,033 foreign residents with Korean citizenship and there were 2,600 foreign children.

Chinese residents, including Korean-Chinese, accounted for 41.2 percent, followed by Vietnamese at 18.7 percent. There was an 11.3 percent increase in multicultural families compared to last year.

A provincial official said Jeju will implement more policies to support its foreign residents, such as offering educational aid programs for their children.