Chungnam Continues Population Decline After Peaking in 2018

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Since peaking in 2018, the population in the Chungnam region has been steadily declining.

According to Chungnam Province on the 7th, as of the end of last month, the population in the area was 2,118,457, a decrease of 5,252 from 2,123,709 at the end of last year.

The problem is that this declining trend has continued for the past 16 months. It is also analyzed that the launch of Sejong City has had a considerable impact on the population decrease in the Chungnam region.

In fact, Chungnam recorded a total population of 2,149,374 in June 2012 when Sejong City was launched. However, with the launch of Sejong City, the entire Yeongi-gun and part of Gongju-si, which were included in Chungnam, were incorporated into Sejong, causing the regional population to sharply drop to around 2,021,700 at one point.

Still, Chungnam's total population increased to about 2,126,000 in December 2018 due to its geographical proximity to the metropolitan area and the effects of industrial complex development and investment attraction based on this. However, since then, the population decline has continued until last month.

Meanwhile, among the 15 cities and counties in Chungnam, only Cheonan-si saw an increase in population from the end of last year to the end of last month. As Asan-si and Seosan-si, which had previously experienced population growth due to industrial complex development and investment attraction, have shifted to a population decline, it is analyzed that the overall regional population decrease is likely to continue for the time being.

Amid concerns over the population cliff, a provincial official said, "We will discover and implement various effective policies to increase the population, such as attracting large-scale factories mainly in population-decreasing areas and providing free rental apartments if newlyweds have two children."

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