The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday 2,011,822 patients from 201 countries sought treatment in 2025, capping a three-year streak of record highs after arrivals cratered to about 110,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chinese nationals accounted for 30.8 percent of the total, overtaking Japanese patients for the first time to claim the top spot, followed by Taiwan, the United States and Thailand.
Dermatology drove the surge, drawing 1.31 million patients — 62.9 percent of the total — while plastic surgery trailed at 11.2 percent, underscoring a pronounced tilt toward cosmetic procedures.
Clinic-level facilities handled 87.7 percent of all visits, and dental clinics, though accounting for just 1.6 percent, posted the steepest year-on-year growth at 128.9 percent.
Seoul absorbed 87.2 percent of the traffic, a concentration the ministry attributed to the capital's dense cluster of transport, tourism and medical infrastructure. Some 2,555 registered medical institutions — 62.5 percent of the national total — are based in the city.
The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade estimated that the 2 million patients and their companions generated about 12.5 trillion won ($8.4 billion) in medical tourism spending, producing more than 10 trillion won in added economic value.
"Now that more than one million patients a year are visiting from across Asia, we will build a sustainable industrial ecosystem," said Jung Eun-young, director-general of the ministry's mental health policy bureau. "We intend to pursue qualitative growth in foreign patient recruitment."
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