Population Moves Less Amid Slump
By Kim Jae-won
Staff Reporter
The nation's population mobility fell last year as people were discouraged from moving amid slumping economic conditions, a statistics agency said Wednesday.
According to an annual population mobility report by Statistics Korea, 8.49 million people changed their legal residence in 2009, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier. This marked the third consecutive year of contraction since 2007 when mobility declined 2.9 percent.
Analysts said that the economic downturn made people remain where they were living rather than move to new places.
“The downward trend is attributed to the sluggish housing market and economic conditions that discouraged people from moving,” Kim Dong-hoe, a deputy director at the agency, said.
“Usually people move when they get new jobs or marry someone who lives in a different area. Such moves decreased due to the economic downturn.”
People who moved in Seoul and its surrounding areas, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, declined last year as well, continuing a downward move for five straight years, the report showed.
Net population increase in the regions totaled 44,000, also the lowest on-year growth since 1999 when 95,000 people were added to the residence list, according to the report.
The agency said that the development of high-speed transportation reduced the concentration of the population in the metro-Seoul area.
“New transportation infrastructures, such as high-speed railways and highways have led people to commute from distant places. A new highway, which connects Seoul and Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, also increased the tendency,” Kim said.
By age, people in their 50s and 60s moved more than the previous year with a 2.7 percent and 0.6 percent increase respectively due to going back to their hometowns or to the countryside after retirement.
However, in the other age groups, the number of those moving dropped, especially people in their 20s and 30s, who moved 8 percent and 4.2 percent less than the previous year, respectively.
Korea has a population of around 49 million with over 10 million residing in Seoul and its surrounding areas.
By region, seven provinces and big cities reported that their net population growth was more than zero, including Gyeonggi Province and South Chungcheong Province with 94,000 and 12,000, respectively.
Nine big cities and provinces said their net population growth was below zero, such as Seoul and Busan, which reported minus 52,000 and minus 30,000, respectively.