The fat is breaking down. Due to the extreme outflow of population. About 640,000 people have disappeared over the past 10 years in major areas of Yeongnam and Honam, including Busan, Gwangju and Daegu. The ‘omnidirectional migration’ of young talents under 29 in search of better education and jobs is accelerating the collapse of the provinces.
The Korea Economic Daily analyzed the demographic movement of the last 10 years (2012-2021), focusing on the resident population of the BNK Economic Research Institute and the National Statistical Office. As a result, the net outflow of relocating population minus relocating population is △Southeast Region (Busan, Ulsan, Gyeongnam) 288,257 people △Daegyeong Area (Daegu, Gyeongbuk) 195,105 people △Honam Area (Gwangju, Jeonnam and North) 159,392 registered people
The commonality of intensive relocations in the 15-29 age group in Southeast, Honam and Daegyeong areas reveals the severity of demographic extinction and talent outflow. In the Southeast region, the age group net outflow was 204,844, accounting for 71 percent of the total net outflow.
Eagle, a senior researcher at the BNK Economic Research Institute, pointed out, “This is a problem caused by the lack of jobs and living infrastructure such as education concentrated in the metropolitan area.” It is explained that the same ‘brain drain’, in which key talents are taken from abroad, is also taking place in the provinces.
Local governments are struggling to revitalize the region. Last year, the city of Busan allocated 2.8557 trillion won in the budget to strengthen the capacity to adapt to population changes in the “1st Basic Plan for Population Policy”. However, it is emphasized that the limitations are stark as it has found no practical alternative other than infrastructure expansion. This is because the link between the organic investment of talent between local universities and businesses has been virtually severed. This is why the voice that urgent measures are needed at the government level is getting louder.
Population Endangered Areas 0 → 115… “There will only be one empty house like this”
Most of the people who drove the rapid growth from the 1960s to the 1980s were those who grew up in their hometowns and moved to the metro area. Every holiday they visit their parents, relatives and neighborhood elders, but now they don’t go to their hometown where there is no reception. It is an empty house that protects the hometown where a child’s cry has stopped. The house is disappearing.
Extinction risk of 228 cities, counties and districts over 25 years
According to 9 government statistics, there was no population endangered area in 2000. That number has exploded to 115 this year (as of June). An ominous warning was issued that all 228 cities, counties and boroughs across the country would enter the extinction danger zone in 25 years.
Population extinction shows a precursor phenomenon. A local gynecologist is a representative indication. There is no baby hospital in Uiseong-gun in North Gyeongsang Province, which is considered a local endangered region. I can only do pre-partum exams. Pregnant women in the Uiseong region have to travel to distant places such as Daegu, Andong and Sangju to give birth. Cheongyang-gun, Chungcheongnam-do also runs an obstetrics and gynecology clinic for pregnant women.
Bold population measures are coming, but analysis of their effectiveness is rare. Rather, the voice of criticism is growing that it is nothing more than population hopping between regions. Sejong City, which celebrated its 10th anniversary, is a prime example. Sejong City was launched in July 2012 with the intention of ‘promoting balanced development of the national territory by distributing the population and functions of the metropolitan area to the provinces’. But now, 10 years later, those expectations are said to have been nothing more than a futile dream. This is because Sejong City has absorbed more people and resources from neighboring Chungcheong Region, including Daejeon City, Chungcheongbuk-do and Chungcheongnam-do, than the population in the metropolitan area. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 46,972 people moved to Sejong last year. Among them, Daejeon delivered 14,097 people (30.1%) to Sejong City. Sejong City has sucked out the population of Chungcheong area, which totals 25,700 people, including 6,317 in Chungnam and 5,286 in Chungbuk.
It is 54.7%, more than half of the population of Sejong City.
On the other hand, the number of people who moved to Sejong City from Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon in the metropolitan area was 12,904, only 27.5% of the total. Considering that 63.8% of the 106,000 net outflows from Seoul moved to nearby Gyeonggi-do, this means that 7 out of 10 people who fled Seoul settled only in the vicinity of Seoul.
◆ “One hundred invalidated medicines” regional restoration policy
Innovative cities are no exception. Since 2005, the government has established 10 innovative cities in the provinces, supporting balanced development. By the first half of this year, 153 public institutions had moved. The projected population of the city of innovation is 267,000 but remains at the level of 85.91%. A Chungcheongbuk-do official said, “It is difficult to say that the population of the innovation city has absorbed the population of the metropolitan area.
As an alternative to population increases, “megacities,” where local governments congregate, are also moving slowly. A megacity refers to a large urban area connected to enable daily life around a central city. It’s a huge project that was supposed to prevent population outflow and create a global business by creating cities with a population of between 5 and 10 million by grouping them by region. For the first time in Korea, the Bu-Ul-Gyeong (Bu-Ul-Gyeong Mega City) special coalition was launched last April, but ended after six months. The analysis that integration might rather accelerate the extinction crisis in the surrounding area has held back the power to launch the coalition. The megacities of Daejeon, Sejong, Chungnam and Chungbuk in the Chungcheong region also have interests in the KTX station stop Sejong, and integration discussions have stalled.
Only two out of six commercial sites across the country have been completed in company towns, which were expected to prevent population outflows and revitalize the local economy. Local governments are appealing to the government for the difficulties. A Gangwon-do official stressed, “The government needs to reorganize the policy to increase the population from the very beginning, which has been going on for nearly 20 years.”
Sejong = Reporter Lim Ho-beom/Busan = Min Geon-tae
