According to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, foreign patients who visited Korea in 2015 were 297,000, up 11.4% from a year earlier. Since 2009, the increase rate of foreign patients who visited Korea has increased by 30.5% every year.

Chinese patients who visited Korea in 2015 increased by 24.6% from a year earlier to 99,000 followed by the United States (41,000), Russia (21,000), Japan (19,000), Kazakhstan and Mongolia (13,000 for each), and Vietnam (5,000). Chinese patients have been the top to visit Korea for 4 years since 2012.

The number of patients from the Middle East and Central Asia has steadily increased. Patients from United Arab Emirate and Uzbekistan increased 11.9% and 38.3% respectively from a year earlier.

By department, 79,000 patients visited internal medicine, the highest figure, followed by transplant surgery (41,000), a medical examination center (34,000), dermatology (31,000), orthopedics (22,000), and neurosurgery (11,000). Patients who visited herbal medical centers were 13,000, more than 11,000 patients who visited the dentist.

Seoul is the city foreign patients visited the most among 16 provinces. The number of foreign patients who visited Seoul accounted for 55.8% to 165,000 followed by the Gyeonggi province to 56,000 (19.1%) and the Incheon Metropolitan city to 16,000 (5.4%). It means patients are concentrated on Seoul for treatment. The increase rates of foreign patients in Seoul, the Gyeonggi province, Jeollabuk-Do, and the Gwangju Metropolitan city were over 40% each.

Patients from Russia were ranked in the first place in Busan and Gyeongsangnan-do provinces and patients from the United States were ranked in the first place in Daegu, Chungnam, and Jeonguk provinces. Chinese patients in 11 provinces accounted for the majority except for these provinces.

Income from medical expense for Chinese patients increased 20.2% to 669.4 billion won from a year earlier. An average medical expense per a person increased 7.9% to 2.25 million won from a year earlier.

United Arab Emirate spent an average medical expense per a person the most. It spent 15.03million won for the average expense. An average medical expense per a person of patients from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Indonesia was 4.61million won, 3.8million won, and 3.49million won respectively.