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By Yi Whan-woo
Seoul is suffering the sharpest population decline among Korea's 17 municipalities, data showed on Monday, as many people can't afford to buy a home in the nation's capital and subsequently are moving to less central areas in search of cheaper housing.
Most of the major cities and provinces also have been losing population. But it is more associated with the low birthrate and aging society that has been dealing a blow to the entire country, whereas the shrinking population in Seoul is mainly caused by a housing bubble, according to sources.
According to Korean Statistical Information Service, a website run by Statistics Korea, the number of residents in Seoul went down by 7.5 percent or 766,946 to 9.42 million between 2012 and 2022.
This is the largest rate of decline among the country's 17 municipalities during the 10-year period, followed by Busan with 6.2 percent and Daegu with 5.7 percent.
Seoul still accounts for 18.3 percent of the nation's total population of 51.43 million.
Nevertheless, the city's population growth has been falling consistently. In 2020, the population fell below the 10 million mark for the first time in over 30 years, according to the city government.
Experts said the skyrocketing housing prices are making it tougher to live in Seoul and prompting people to settle in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, both parts of the greater Seoul area.
They noted the population in the greater Seoul area increased by 3.4 percent or 852,520 to 25.98 million over the 2012-22 period.
By region, the number of residents in Incheon increased 4.3 percent or 123,333 to 2.96 million while that of Gyeonggi Province went up by 12.4 percent or 1.49 million to 13.58 million.
"Seoul residents are moving out to Incheon and Gyeonggi Province to buy affordable housing," a market source said. "Those coming from rural areas as well as major cities and provinces are also settling in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, not Seoul, due to the high housing prices."
Housing prices in Seoul especially skyrocketed in recent years over the failed real estate policies under the previous Moon Jae-in administration and costly borrowing rates.
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