Foreign tourists pose at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, April 16. Yonhap
The number of foreign patients topped 2 million for the first time last year as Korea emerged as a global hub for plastic surgery and dermatology, the health ministry said Friday.
A total of 2.01 million international patients from 201 countries visited the country last year, nearly doubling from 1.17 million a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The annual number had risen every year since the ministry began compiling such data in 2009 but dropped to 110,000 in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it took only five years to surpass the 2 million mark, driven by growing demand for Korean dermatology treatments and the global popularity of K-pop and Korean dramas.
Chinese patients accounted for 30.8 percent of the total, followed by Japanese at 29.8 percent, Taiwanese at 9.2 percent and Americans at 8.6 percent.
In particular, the number of U.S. patients surged 70.4 percent to a record 173,000 in 2025 from a year earlier.
More than 62 percent of the foreign patients were treated at dermatology clinics, while 11.2 percent received plastic surgery.
By region, 87.2 percent of the international patients visited clinics in Seoul.
Source: Korea Times News
