Goheung-gun Achieves National No.1 in Urban-to-Rural Migration in 2019 'Great Success'

The Population Decline Overcome with Tailored Policies as a Result of the 7th Minseon Administration

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] Goheung-gun, Jeonnam, was found to have the highest number of returnees to farming who moved from urban to rural areas nationwide last year.

According to Goheung-gun on the 29th, although the number of returnees to farming nationwide decreased by 4.6% compared to 2018, Goheung-gun confirmed a 4.7% increase, according to the returnee to farming statistics jointly announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and Statistics Korea.

The returnee to farming statistics are administrative statistical data created by linking administrative data collected and held by the government and public institutions. The top five regions nationwide where the number of returnees to farming increased in this statistics are Goheung-gun, Jeonnam; Uiseong-gun, Gyeongbuk; Sangju-si, Gyeongbuk; Naju-si, Jeonnam; and Gochang-gun, Jeonbuk, in that order.

Since the 7th local government administration, Goheung-gun established the Population Policy Division for the first time nationwide to overcome population decline issues such as low birthrate and aging, and formulated a five-year population policy plan (2018?2022) containing 50 policies under three major strategies: Goheung Love Youth Return, Child Happiness, and Return (Return to Farming and Fishing) and Rural Settlement.

Major policies include settlement incentives for Goheung youth returning, support for parental business succession, support for housewarming and farm house repair costs for returnees to farming and rural areas, support for youth entrepreneurial challenges, operation of conflict resolution programs with original residents, and support for farming technology, providing various customized policies to support the initial settlement of returnees to farming and rural areas.

So far, the county has renovated a closed school to create the "Return to Farming and Rural Happiness School" for pre-education and field experience for those wishing to return to farming and rural areas, which is the first local government-operated school nationwide.

Additionally, Goheung has signed win-win business agreements with Goheung hometown associations in Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, etc., and actively promotes population policies such as urban resident return to farming and rural promotion at Seoul aT Center, Goheung Love Return to Farming and Rural Happiness SNS promotional team activities, and providing one-stop consultation services for return and rural settlement.

As a result, since the start of the 7th local government administration, 1,745 households and 2,245 people have moved into Goheung over 1 year and 10 months, which is equivalent to the population of Daeseo-myeon (2,315 people).

However, due to low birthrate, natural population decline, and population outflow, the total population is still decreasing, leaving overcoming population decline as a major issue.

A county official said, “To attract urban residents to return to farming and rural areas, we will actively promote through SNS such as YouTube, Band, Instagram, and Facebook, and complete County Governor Song Guigun’s zero population decline rate policy by the end of 2022.”

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