Last Month Domestic Population Movement Decreased by 6.9%... Only Gyeonggi, Sejong, and Jeju Show Net Inflow

Statistics Korea Announces 'February 2021 Population Movement'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Last month, domestic population movement in South Korea decreased by 9.6% compared to the same month last year. This is due to the base effect from last year's surge in real estate transactions, and the overall volume of movement remained at an average level. By region, 14 cities and provinces experienced net population outflow, except for Gyeonggi, Sejong, and Jeju.

According to the 'Domestic Population Movement in February 2021' data released by Statistics Korea on the 24th, the number of movers last month was 706,000, down 9.6% from the same month last year. This significant base effect was caused by the surge in real estate sales transactions in February last year (780,000), and the number of movers itself remained at an average level, including 2019 (702,000), according to Statistics Korea. The decline rate was the largest in six years since February 2015 (-12.5%). Monthly population movement is highly volatile due to seasonal factors such as the start of a new school term and large-scale apartment move-ins.

The year-on-year change rate in the number of movers increased continuously from February to December last year, except for May (0.0%) which was flat, but turned negative in January (-2.2%), showing a decline for two consecutive months. Among all movers, 64.5% moved within the same city or province, and 35.5% moved between cities or provinces. These figures represent decreases of 9.8% and 9.1%, respectively, compared to the previous year. The population movement rate (number of movers per 100 people) was 17.9%, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous year.

Looking at net migration (inflow minus outflow) by city and province, three regions?Gyeonggi (20,813 people), Sejong (1,497 people), and Jeju (502 people)?recorded net inflow, while 14 regions including Seoul (-9,415 people), Daegu (-2,502 people), and Daegu (-2,484 people) recorded net outflow. The net migration rates by city and province in February were net inflows in Sejong (5.5%), Gyeonggi (2.0%), and Jeju (1.0%), and net outflows in Ulsan (-2.9%), Daegu (-1.4%), and Seoul (-1.3%).

A Statistics Korea official explained, "The number of housing sales transactions last month has not yet been announced, so the direct impact cannot be confirmed," adding, "However, the number of apartments scheduled for move-in decreased by 16.5%."

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