▲ International students take a photo of themselves at Dong-A University in the southeastern city of Busan on Aug. 20, 2026, during their graduation ceremony. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- The number of elementary, middle and high school students with an immigrant background has reached a record high, government data showed Wednesday.

The number of students from multicultural or foreign-nationality families came to 210,838 as of April 1, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the education ministry and the Korean Educational Development Institute.

They also accounted for 4.3 percent of all students enrolled at all elementary and secondary schools here.

By parents' country of origin, Vietnam took the largest share at 30.9 percent, followed by China at 26.7 percent and the Philippines at 8.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of international students in higher education, including university and graduate school, came to 307,464 this year, up 21.3 percent from last year, the data showed.

For the first time, Vietnamese students surpassed Chinese students to become the largest group, accounting for 31.5 percent of the total at 96,834. Chinese students numbered 78,890, accounting for 25.7 percent.

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