By the numbers

There are currently over 3,000 defector students who are part of South Korea's public education system (grades 1-12). The most recent detailed statistics were released by the Ministry of Education back in 2016, when there were 2,517 defector students.

students by region

Although the students are dispersed throughout South Korea, more than half were in the Seoul/ Gyeonggi region. Some key cities included:

• Gyeonggi   724
• Seoul         625
• Incheon     234
• Busan        83
• Gwangju   80
• Daegu        65

students by grade

Roughly half of the 2,517 students were in elementary school (grades 1-6) while the other half was split 60-40 between middle school (grades 7-9) and high school (grades 10-12):

• Elementary       1,143
  • Boys        599
  • Girls        544
• Middle School  773
  • Boys         376
  • Girls         397
• High School      601
  • Boys         273
  • Girls         328

OVERALL TREND

Although the pace of change varies year to year, the number of defector students in South Korea have risen consistently, growing at average 10% per year since 2010.

• 2010   1,417
• 2011   1,681
• 2012   1,992
• 2013   2,022
• 2014   2,183
• 2015   2,475
• 2016   2,517

Source: Ministry of Education, 2016