Domestic Population Movement in Q1 Drops 5.5% to an 8-Year Low... Seoul Population Experiences Net Outflow for 13 Consecutive Months

Statistics Korea Announces 'March Domestic Population Movement Statistics'... Movers Decrease as Housing Transactions Decline

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] As housing transactions slowed down, domestic population movement in the first quarter (January to March) showed the largest decline in eight years compared to the same quarter.

According to the 'March 2021 Domestic Population Movement Statistics' released by Statistics Korea on the 28th, the number of movers in the first quarter this year was 2,074,000, a 5.5% decrease compared to the same quarter last year. This is the largest decline since the first quarter of 2013 (-6.0%) on a same-quarter basis.

The population movement rate, which refers to the number of movers per 100 people, was 16.4%, down 0.8 percentage points. Among total movers, 64.7% moved within the same city or province, while 35.3% moved between cities or provinces.

The decrease in domestic population movement in the first quarter was due to a continuous decline in the number of movers from January to March. The number of movers in March was 735,000, a 4.0% decrease compared to one year earlier.

From February (11.1%) to December (11.1%) last year, except for May (-0.0%), the number of movers had been steadily increasing, but it turned to a decrease in January this year (-2.2%), followed by declines in February (-9.6%) and March (-4.0%) for three consecutive months.

Kim Sooyoung, head of the Population Trends Division at Statistics Korea, said, "The 14.0% decrease in housing sales in the first quarter compared to the same period last year and the 10.3% reduction in apartments scheduled for occupancy in February and March seem to have influenced the decrease in the number of movers." He added, "There may also be a base effect due to the increase in housing sales and monthly rent transactions last year, which led to an increase in movers."

Looking at population movement by city/province in the first quarter, five regions including Gyeonggi (57,092 people), Sejong (4,306 people), and Jeju (695 people) experienced net population inflow, while 12 regions including Seoul (-26,071 people), Daegu (-7,518 people), and Ulsan (-5,460 people) experienced net outflow.

Among these, Seoul saw 6,216 people move to other regions in March alone. Seoul's net population outflow has continued for 13 consecutive months since March last year.

By age group, the number of movers in the first quarter was highest among those in their 20s (505,000 people), followed by those in their 30s (414,000 people), 40s (304,000 people), 60 and older (259,000 people), 50s (242,000 people), under 10 years old (179,000 people), and teens (169,000 people).

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