Last Year Domestic Population Movement Decreased by 0.4% Compared to Previous Year... Housing Sales Decline Factor

"Impact of Decreased Housing Sales Volume and New Apartment Move-ins"
City/Province Migration... Sejong 25.3%, Gwangju 15.0%, Seoul & Gyeonggi 14.9%

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Last year, the number of people who moved residences within South Korea was 7,104,000, which remained at a low level. It appears that population movement was not active due to the decrease in housing sales transactions.

Domestic population movement has been on a long-term decline due to factors such as aging, but it is analyzed that this is due to the decrease in newly scheduled apartment move-ins and housing sales transactions, which fell by 11.6% and 6.0% respectively compared to the previous year.

According to the '2019 Domestic Population Movement Statistics' released by Statistics Korea on the 29th, the number of domestic movers last year was a total of 7,104,000, down 193,000 (2.6%) from the previous year. Last year, after three years of increase, domestic population movement statistics turned to a decline again.

The population movement rate, which refers to the number of movers per 100 registered residents, was 13.8%, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous year. This is the lowest since 1972 (11.0%).

Kim Jin, head of the Population Trends Division at Statistics Korea, explained, "The biggest reason for the decrease in population movement compared to the previous year is housing," adding, "It is due to the decrease in housing sales transactions and newly scheduled apartment move-ins."

◆ Reasons for population movement: housing, family, and job in order of frequency = Housing (2,758,000 people; 38.8%) was the most cited reason for population movement. However, the number of people who moved residences due to housing decreased by 163,000 compared to the previous year. Family (1,692,000 people; 23.8%) and job (1,533,000 people; 21.6%) followed.

Movement within cities and provinces accounted for 4,719,000 people, or 66.4% of the total. Movement between cities and provinces was 2,385,000 people, or 33.6% of the total.

Looking at the movement rate by age group, those in their 20s (23.1%) and 30s (21.0%) showed high rates. In particular, last year, the movement rate decreased in all age groups except those in their 20s. The median age of movers was 34.1 years, down 0.1 years from the previous year.

People in their 20s experienced net outflow from 13 cities and provinces including Jeonbuk (-4.5%), Jeonnam (-4.2%), Gyeongbuk and Gyeongnam (-3.3%), while net inflow occurred in four cities and provinces: Sejong (9.3%), Seoul (3.3%), Gyeonggi (1.5%), and Incheon (0.3%).

◆ Inflow increased in Sejong, Gwangju, Seoul, Gyeonggi... inflow to Jeju decreased = By city and province, the area with the highest inflow rate was Sejong (25.3%). It was followed by Gwangju (15.0%), Seoul and Gyeonggi (14.9%). The area with the highest outflow rate was also Sejong (18.0%). Daejeon (15.5%) and Seoul (15.4%) also showed high rates.

Net inflow occurred in five cities and provinces where the number of in-migrants exceeded out-migrants: Gyeonggi (135,000), Sejong (24,000), Jeju and Chungbuk (3,000), and Gangwon (2,000).

Kim said, "As environmental issues have emerged, the recent trend of moving to Jeju seems to be decreasing."

Conversely, places where out-migrants exceeded in-migrants included Seoul (-50,000), Daegu (-24,000), Busan (-23,000), and 12 other cities and provinces.

The 'net inflow rate,' which indicates the ratio of net movers to the regional population, was highest in Sejong (7.3%), followed by Gyeonggi (1.0%) and Jeju (0.4%). The net outflow rate was highest in Daejeon (-1.1%), Daegu (-1.0%), and Ulsan (-0.9%).

By gender, the movement rate for men was 14.2%, 0.7 percentage points higher than that for women (13.5%). The 'movement rate sex ratio,' which indicates the number of male movers per 100 female movers, was 105.0, an increase of 0.9 from the previous year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.