Toronto’s Korean community began with a mission-sponsored medical intern, Tae-yon Whang, who settled in 1948. About 100 Koreans lived in the Toronto area in 1966, and the first Korean church service was held on April 23, 1967. A visible Korean neighbourhood formed on Bloor Street West around 1975. Today it is centred between Bathurst and Christie streets.
Missionary links and the first settlers
The first Koreans in Toronto came through church connections. The United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada ran missions in Korea, and the Toronto Guardian, in a 2013 local-history article, describes those missionaries as a source of stability in a country marked by Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 and then by war.
A study of Korean settlement published in 1984 by Jung-Gun Kim in Polyphony, the journal of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, names Tae-yon Whang as the first Korean to settle permanently in Canada. He arrived in 1948 as a mission-sponsored medical intern and practised in the Rosedale area. A second early figure, David Chong, was chosen in 1947 for a scholarship at Emmanuel College in Toronto. He returned to Korea in 1949, came back to Canada in 1968, and became a professor of religious studies at Carleton University in 1969.
These were isolated cases. Kim records that about 70 Korean immigrants lived in Canada in 1965, centred on Toronto.
A chain of friends, 1962 to 1966
The first non-student Korean immigrants arrived in the early 1960s. In 1962 Ch’ung-lim Chon came to Toronto with his family on a visitor’s visa. According to Kim, his letters to friends in Korea set off a chain of arrivals: Ch’ang-wu Kim in 1963, Ch’ang’gun Yun in 1964 and Sun-ch’ang Kim in 1965. Chon later edited the Korean-language weekly New Korea Times.
Both Kim and the Toronto Guardian give about 100 Koreans in the Toronto area in 1966. Kim says the number more than doubled in 1967, and the Guardian adds that this made Toronto the largest Korean community in Canada at that time.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1948 | Tae-yon Whang settles in Toronto |
| 1962 | Chon family arrives on visitor’s visas |
| 1965 | About 70 Korean immigrants in Canada, centred on Toronto |
| 1966 | About 100 Koreans in the Toronto area |
| April 23, 1967 | First service of the Korean congregation |
| 1973 | Canadian embassy opens in Seoul |
| About 1975 | Korean neighbourhood visible on Bloor Street |
The 1967 church and the new immigration rules
In March 1967 an ad hoc committee of Korean Christians, former missionaries and church officials was formed. On April 23, 1967, the first Korean service was held at St. Luke’s United Church on Sherbourne Street with 60 organizing members, and within two months the group had joined the United Church of Canada as the Toronto Korean United Church. Rev. W.A. Burbidge, a former missionary, was its first minister. The Toronto Guardian also dates the founding of Alpha Korean United Church to 1967, calling it a key centre of community and faith.
Later that year, on August 16, 1967, Ottawa issued new immigration regulations (Order-in-Council PC 1967-1616). According to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, independent applicants were scored out of 100 points in nine categories, including education, occupational skill, age and knowledge of English or French, and 50 points were needed for admission. The Museum notes that immigration from Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa rose significantly afterward. The wider policy history is covered in the article on postwar immigration to Toronto.
The timing is worth noting. Kim places the doubling of the Korean community in 1967, and the new rules were issued in August of that year. The earlier growth therefore came through sponsorship and church links, and the points system supported the larger movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s that the Guardian describes. Canada opened an embassy in Seoul in 1973, according to Kim.
Bloor Street and the making of Koreatown
The Toronto Guardian says a visible Korean neighbourhood emerged on Bloor Street around 1975. In that year the president of the Korean Canadian Association estimated that about 10,000 Koreans lived in the Toronto area. This is a community estimate, not a census count. Shops and services opened to serve the new residents, and the strip near Bathurst and Christie, in the area west of the Annex, took the name Koreatown.
The City of Toronto’s list of business improvement areas places the Korea Town BIA along Bloor Street West between Bathurst Street and Christie Street. It describes a mix of Korean restaurants, fashion boutiques, health and wellness providers such as herbalists and acupuncturists, and service businesses. The City also names the annual Dano Festival, held in nearby Christie Pits Park, which features Korean martial arts demonstrations, traditional music and dance. The BIA’s own website says it has displayed white tiger lights in the park in front of Christie Station each holiday season since December 2004, a design based on a Goguryeo tomb mural.
The sources used here do not give a founding date for the BIA. They also do not say how many Koreans live in the district today. The Guardian notes that many Koreans work in the area while few live there, a pattern common to older immigrant districts as families move to the suburbs.
Churches, newspapers and associations
The church did far more than hold services. Kim records that the Toronto Korean United Church ran a Korean language school and an annual lecture series called Seoul House. It also produced a weekly radio programme, “Voice of Hope,” and a television programme, “Korean Celebration.” A church choir of about 50 singers became the Toronto Korean-Canadian Choir and performed at Massey Hall in 1982 (see the Massey Hall article). By 1982 about a dozen Korean United Church congregations existed in Canada, half of them in the Toronto area.
Kim lists other organizations. They include the Korean YMCA of Toronto, the Korean Canadian Association of Metropolitan Toronto, the Korean Senior Citizens’ Association and the Korean Human Rights Council of Ontario. Publications included the monthly journals Pioneer and Third Day alongside the New Korea Times. Most of these are not dated in the article, and some may have changed or closed since 1984.
Corner stores and family work
Many Korean arrivals in the 1970s and later found their first work in small business. The Toronto Guardian reports that in 1993 the Toronto Historical Board counted more than 1,000 corner stores in the city run by Koreans. It also gives a figure from the 2006 census, that 17 per cent of the Korean labour force in Canada worked in retail trade, compared with 11 per cent of the general population. The playwright Ins Choi drew on that world in Kim’s Convenience, which premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2011. The Guardian says Choi called the church and the store the two pillars of Korean community life.
The 1993 count is a report by a heritage body and the census figure covers the whole country, so neither is a precise measure of Toronto today. Newer Korean business districts have also grown beyond Bloor Street, notably along Yonge Street in the north of the city, but the sources opened for this article do not document that later history. For the northern suburbs, see the North York article.
Where the record is thin
Census figures give the later scale. In the 1986 census, 29,705 people in Canada reported Korean as a single or multiple ethnic origin, and about half of them lived in Metropolitan Toronto, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. About 15,000 of the immigrants had arrived between 1967 and 1977, and about 7,000 between 1978 and 1986. Statistics Canada counted 218,140 people in the Korean racialized group across Canada in the 2021 census. The City of Toronto’s 2021 census backgrounder shows Koreans at 1.5 per cent of the city’s population, compared with 0.6 per cent for Canada as a whole.
Two limits apply. I could not open a Statistics Canada table giving a Toronto count of Koreans for 2021, so no such number appears here, and the 1986 split is given only as “about half.” Readers who need exact local counts can consult the census profiles for the City of Toronto and the Toronto region directly. For the broader story of how newcomers shaped the city, read the immigration history of Toronto.
Frequently asked questions
Who was the first Korean immigrant in Toronto?
Tae-yon Whang, a mission-sponsored medical intern, is described in a 1984 study as the first Korean to settle permanently in Canada. He arrived in 1948 and practised in the Rosedale area.
How big was the Korean community in the 1960s?
About 70 Korean immigrants lived in Canada in 1965, mostly in Toronto, and about 100 lived in the Toronto area in 1966. The community more than doubled in 1967.
How many Koreans live in Toronto?
The 2021 census backgrounder of the City of Toronto shows Koreans at 1.5 per cent of the city’s population. In 1986 about half of Canada’s 29,705 people of Korean origin lived in Metropolitan Toronto.
When did Koreatown on Bloor Street form?
A visible Korean neighbourhood emerged on Bloor Street around 1975, according to the Toronto Guardian. The Korea Town BIA now covers Bloor Street West between Bathurst and Christie streets.
What role did churches play?
The first Korean service was held on April 23, 1967, and the congregation became the Toronto Korean United Church. It also ran language classes, radio and television programmes, and a choir.
What is the Dano Festival?
The City of Toronto lists it as an annual festival held in Christie Pits Park, with Korean martial arts demonstrations, traditional music and dance.
Sources
- Jung-Gun Kim, “How Koreans came to call Toronto home,” Polyphony, vol. 6, Multicultural History Society of Ontario (1984)
- Toronto Guardian, “Korea Town and the History of Koreans in Toronto” (August 20, 2013)
- Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, “Immigration Regulations, Order-in-Council PC 1967-1616, 1967”
- City of Toronto, Business Improvement Areas list, entry for Korea Town BIA (accessed October 2026)
- Korea Town Business Improvement Area, organization website, home page (accessed October 2026)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, entry on Korean Canadians, 1986 census figures (accessed November 2026)
- Statistics Canada, Canada at a Glance, 2023, section on racialized groups, 2021 Census (accessed November 2026)
- City of Toronto, 2021 Census Backgrounder: Citizenship, Immigration, Ethnoracial Diversity, Religion, Mobility, Migration (accessed November 2026)
Related reading
- Postwar immigration to Toronto
- Immigration history of Toronto
- The Annex
- Massey Hall
- North York history
Last verified: November 2026
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, November 1). Korean Toronto History: From the 1948 Settler to Koreatown. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/korean-toronto-history
MLA: “Korean Toronto History: From the 1948 Settler to Koreatown.” History of Toronto, 1 Nov 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/korean-toronto-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Korean Toronto History: From the 1948 Settler to Koreatown.” Last modified November 1, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/korean-toronto-history.
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