ABSTRACT
The number of Koreans living abroad is estimated at about 7 million, approximately 10% of the population of the Korean peninsula’s 70 million, and women comprise signifi cantly more than a half of this diasporic population (Korea Focus 2008; Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2009). Korea ranks fourth in the global diaspora in terms of sheer numbers, following China, Israel and Italy, but ranks fi rst in terms of the percentage of the homeland population. Asia has the largest share of overseas Koreans with about 4 million (57% of the total), followed by Americas with 2.34 million (33%) and Europe with 650,000 (9%). Specifi cally, there are about 2,337,000 Koreans in China (33% of the total), 2,102,000 in the US (30%), 913,000 in Japan (13%), 223,000 in Canada (3%), 222,000 in Russia (3%), 126,000 in Australia (2%), 53,000 in Germany (0.8%) and 45,000 in the UK (0.6%).
