A foreign visitor waits to take a COVID-19 test before entering Korea at Incheon International Airport, Jan. 23. Yonhap

The number of Korean and foreign migrants fell at the fastest-ever pace last year as the COVID-19 pandemic restricted cross-border movements by people, data showed Thursday.

The number of international migrants, referring to those who stay for more than 90 days here, declined 347,000, or 28.1 percent, on-year to 887,000, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The data is calculated based on cross-border movements of both Korean nationals and foreigners, excluding short-term visitors.

It marked the sharpest on-year fall since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 2000. The 2021 numbers were also the lowest since 2004.

The number of entrants fell 39 percent on-year to 410,000, while a total of 476,000 people left the country, down 15 percent from the previous year.

This resulted in a net outflow of international migrants last year, marking the first net outflow since 2006.

The fall in people's cross-border movements came as the pandemic has prompted more countries to impose entry restrictions, disrupting air travel.

Last year, the number of incoming Korean passport holders sharply declined in a shift from a 41.5 percent on-year rise in the previous year.

The number of Korean nationals who came from overseas countries fell 56.9 percent on-year to 190,000. The number of Koreans who left the country rose 7.2 percent to 14,000.

In 2020, incoming Koreans sharply rose as more students and businesspeople returned home due to spikes in virus cases in foreign countries.

The number of foreign migrants who visited Korea fell for the third straight year in 2021 due to the pandemic.

The number of such incoming foreigners fell 5.4 percent on-year to 221,000, and that of foreigners who left the country sank 27.2 percent to 263,000. (Yonhap)