The number of foreigners living in South Korea has been on the rise over the past few years, with a sharp increase in the number of children born to non-Korean families, government data showed Tuesday.

According to the data by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration, foreign residents numbered 1.45 million as of Jan. 1, 2013, accounting for 2.8 percent of the country’s total population.

The 2013 figure is up 2.6 percent from a year earlier and marks the seventh consecutive on-year rise since 2006 when the ministry began compiling related data.

The foreign residents here include those who stay for 90 days or longer, naturalized citizens and children whose mothers or fathers are non-Korean.

In accordance with the increase in the number of marriage immigrants, the number of children born to foreign families rose to 191,328, up by 13.5 percent from the previous year, and a figure that more than tripled from five years ago, according to the data.

By nationality, Chinese take up the largest share of 53.7 percent, or 775,474, followed by Vietnamese with 12.2 percent, Americans with 4.8 percent and Filipinos with 4 percent.

Some 30.5 percent reside in Gyeonggi Province, followed by 27.4 percent in Seoul, and North Gyeongsang Province with 6.2 percent, with 44 cities in the country having more than 10,000 foreign residents each, the data showed. (Yonhap News)