Foreign-born population – 2020 (UNDESA) | 0.1% of the population | Main countries of birth: |
0.9 million, 39% women | Evolution since 2015: +6% | Viet Nam (44%), Korea (21%), Brazil (8%) |
International Migration Outlook 2025
In 2024, the immigration management authorities in China inspected 610 million exit-entry travellers in total, marking a rise of 43.7% compared with the previous year. Specifically, 64.9 million were made by foreign nationals, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 82.9%. A total of 32.6 million trips were made by vehicles of transportation (planes, trains, ships, and cars) throughout the year, marking a year-on-year growth of 38.8%. The number of foreigners visiting China was experiencing a rapid growth trend and was gradually returning to the levels observed in 2019. Meanwhile, relevant authorities intensified actions against cross-border illegal and criminal activities in border areas, carried out winter crackdowns on public security offenses, and strengthened management over foreign nationals who illegally entered, resided, or worked in China.
To enhance the convenience for foreigners visiting China, the National Immigration Administration of China, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been actively optimising visa policies, enhancing visa-free agreements with additional countries, streamlining visa processing procedures, and reducing processing times. Additionally, by maximising the advantages of policies such as port visas, regional entry visa exemptions, and transit visa exemptions, a more flexible, efficient, and convenient visa system for entry into China is being developed.
Currently, China has established visa exemption agreements encompassing different categories of passports with 157 countries and has entered into comprehensive visa exemption agreements with 29 countries. A unilateral visa-free policy has been introduced for 47 countries, including France, Germany, South Korea and Japan, allowing visa-free entry and stay for up to 30 days. Moreover, the transit visa-free policy has been extensively relaxed and optimised, extending the stay duration to 240 hours, increasing the number of applicable ports to 60, and expanding the stay activity areas to 24 provinces. Meanwhile, over 20 measures have been subsequently introduced, including a 30‑day, visa-free entry policy for individuals from 59 countries to Hainan, a 15‑day, visa-free allowance for foreign tourist groups arriving at coastal provinces by cruise, and the relaxation of port visa criteria, thoroughly satisfying the diverse needs of international visitors. According to statistics, China recorded 20.1 million visa-free entries in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 112.3%.
In December 2024, China integrated the physical Foreigner’s Work Permit into the electronic Social Security Card. The Permit is now issued digitally. In most cases, applications, renewals and changes are done online through the Service System for Foreigner’s Working in China platform. Moving forward, China decided to expand the institutional opening-up in migration management, implementing broader and more vigorous visa exemption policies, creating a more market-driven, law-based, and international business setting.
International student enrolment in China, following a partial reopening to degree‑programme students in mid‑2022, increased. While for the academic year 2021/22, there were 131 000 new entrants for the academic year 2022/23, up from 114 000 the previous year, and overall enrolment was stable at about 254 000, 24% below the 2019 level.
In terms of outflows of workers, China sent 409 000 workers abroad in 2024 through labour co‑operation, an 18% increase from 2023. There were almost 600 000 Chinese workers abroad through labour co‑operation at the end of 2024.
For further information: https://en.nia.gov.cn.
