The amount of land in South Korea owned by foreigners grew slightly last year with more than half of such land owned by American citizens, the government said Wednesday.

The amount of land owned by foreign investors or companies reached 226.21 million square meters as of the end of last year, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

The land owned by foreigners accounted for 0.2 percent of South Korea’s total area with the estimated value of the land owned by foreigners totaling 32.35 trillion won ($29.83 billion), up 4 percent from 31.99 trillion won at the end of 2011.

By nationality, American citizens, including Korean-Americans, owned some 122 million square meters of land in the country, accounting for 54 percent of the total owned by foreigners, according to the ministry.

European nationals and businesses owned some 23.5 million square meters of land with Japanese entities making up 8.5 percent of the total with about 19.1 million square meters of land.

South Korean expatriates with foreign citizenship held 57.1 percent of the total land owned by foreigners with foreign-invested firms here holding 31.8 percent and genuine foreign companies owning 6.9 percent. (Yonhap News)