Numbers: Multiethnic families in Korea

Number of foreign spouses living in Korea in 2001 and 2010, respectively: 25,182 / 137,448

Number of international marriages in 1990, 2000 and 2010, respectively: 4,710 / 11,605 / 34,235

Ratio of all marriages in Korea consisting of one foreign national in 1990: 1.2 percent

Same ratio in 2007: 11.1 percent

Ratio in which the groom was the foreigner in an interracial wedding in 1990: 87 percent

The same ratio in 2004: 28 percent

In 2009, the ratio of interracial marriages with a Korean groom and a foreign bride: 75.5 

Top exporters of brides to Korea in 2009: China (34 percent) / Vietnam (22 percent)

Average age difference in Korean-Vietnamese marriages: 17 years

Percentage of multiracial families that live on earnings at or below the national minimum hourly wage of 4,000 won: 53 percent

Number of multiethnic households in 2010: 386,977

Number of biracial children in Korea in 1965, 2007, 2011, respectively: 5,000 / 44,258 / 151,154

In 2009, the ratio of children with a foreign-born mother and a Korean father: 4 percent

By 2050, the predicted ratio of mixed-race children to ethnically Korean children: 10 percent

Number of biracial students in Seoul’s elementary, middle and high schools in 2011: 6,837

Percentage of school-aged children from multiethnic families who were not attending any school in 2011: 33 percent (elementary school) / 47 percent (middle school) / 72 percent (high school)

The dropout rate of multiracial children from elementary school: 15.4 percent 

The figure for ethnically Korean kids: 22 times less than that

Percentage of mixed-race children bullied at school, according to a 2011 survey: 37 percent

Percentage of children from the survey who were told to “go back your country”: 21 percent

Percentage of biracial children who were at least six months behind their ethnically Korean peers, according to a 2010 survey of 2,400 children: 60 percent

Current number of prep schools for biracial children: 3

The proposed number for 2013: 26

Middle and high schools that were majority multiracial in 2011: 80

Ratio of Korean students who have not received education on multiculturalism, according to a 2011 survey: 70 percent

Ratio of Koreans aged 19 to 74 who have positive feelings about the coexistence of different races, according to a survey of 2,500 people: 36 percent

That ratio in 18 European countries: 74 percent

Ratio of Koreans who think Koreans should have Korean ancestors: 86.5 percent 

For Japanese, Swedish respectively: 72.1 percent / 30 percent 

Total number of people residing in multiethnic households in 2010: 939,379

Province with the highest number of multiethnic households: Gyeonggi Province (115,043)

Province with the fewest: Jeju (2,587)

Amount of money Korea will spend on social integration programs in 2012: 1.9 billion won 

The number of “multicultural family support centers” in 2010 and 2011, respectively: 159 / 200

Number of interracial marriages that failed in 2004 and 2010, respectively: 3,300 / 11,245

From 2003 to 2010, the number of Korean women who divorced their foreign husbands: 18,715

Number of Korean men that did the same: 27,775

Number of biracial children from broken families in 2004, 2007, 2010: 500 / 1,000 / 1,500

The number of times the word “multicultural” appeared in the Toronto Star online and in print — the leading newspaper in the most multicultural city in the world — online and in print since Jan. 1, 2010: 331

The number of times the same word “multicultural” appeared in the Korea Herald online and in print during the same period: 431

Sources: Ministry of Public Administration and Security, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Statistics Korea, Center for Multicultural Korea, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul Metropaolitan Office of Education, Massachusetts Historical Society, Korea Herald, Korea Times, Toronto Star