Number of foreign patients top 2 million for first time in 2025

This article is by Yoon So-yeon, Yonhap and read by an artificial voice. The number of foreign patients surpassed 2 million for the first time last year as Korea emerged as a global hub for plastic surgery and dermatology, government data showed on Friday. A total of 2.01 million international patients from 201 countries visited the country in 2025, nearly doubling from the 1.17 million in 2024, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. This is the highest figure on record since the government began compiling related data in 2009. The annual number had risen every year since the ministry began compiling such data but dropped to 110,000 in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, it has taken only five years to top the 2 million mark, driven by growing demand for Korean dermatology treatments and the global popularity of K-pop and K-dramas. Patients from China accounted for 30.8 percent of the total, followed by those from Japan at 29.8 percent, Taiwan at 9.2 percent and the United States at 8.6 percent. In particular, the number of U.S. patients surged 70.4 percent to a record 173,000 in 2025 compared to a year earlier. Most patients' treatments were concentrated at "beauty" hospitals. More than 62 percent of foreign patients, around 1.31 million, were treated at dermatology clinics, 11.2 percent underwent plastic surgery and 9.2 percent received internal medicine. By region, 87.2 percent of international patients visited clinics in Seoul. Busan was the second most popular place with 2.8 percent, followed by Jeju Island with 2.3 percent, and both showed "significant" growth in the number of patients, according to the government data. "Policy support, such as tax returns on aesthetic treatments and plastic surgeries, along with the spread of [the Korean Wave], including K-pop and K-beauty, played a major role," said a Health Ministry official. "We will keep on boosting the growth of the medical [Korean Wave] through the protection of intellectual properties and an orderly distribution system." Medical tourism proves a strong contributor to the local economy, according to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade. Just last year, medical tourists and their companions spent a total of 12.5 trillion won ($8.4 billion) in Korea, of which 3.3 trillion won was used for medical expenses alone. The total economic effect stemming from medical tourism was calculated to be 22.8 trillion won.