Domestic Population Movement in Q2 Hits Lowest in 48 Years... Seoul Sees Net Outflow of 9,000 People

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] Population movement in the second quarter of this year recorded the lowest level in 48 years. It was found that more than 9,000 people left Seoul.

According to the 'June Domestic Population Movement Statistics' released by Statistics Korea on the 27th, the number of domestic movers in the second quarter of this year was 1,483,000, a 12.5% decrease compared to the same period last year. This is the lowest figure in 48 years since 1974 (1,251,000) for the second quarter. The population movement rate, which indicates the number of movers per 100 people, also dropped by 1.6 percentage points to 11.6% in one year.

The trend of Seoul's population flowing out to the metropolitan areas such as Gyeonggi and Incheon continued. By city and province, the Gyeonggi region saw a net inflow of 11,203 people in the second quarter, and Incheon (5,503 people) also had more movers in than out. On the other hand, Seoul experienced a net outflow of 9,058 people, and other areas such as Gyeongnam (-4,152 people) and Busan (-3,435 people) also saw population decreases.

No Hyungjun, head of the Population Trends Division at Statistics Korea, explained, "Typically, there is a lot of population movement among Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi, and especially the population in their 30s and 40s tends to leave Seoul due to reasons such as housing, as reflected in the statistics."

The number of domestic movers in June was 477,000, a 12.2% decrease compared to the same period last year. The scale of movers was also the smallest for the month since 1974 (360,000). The population movement rate (11.3%) also set a new low since related statistics began to be compiled in 2000.

No said, "It is natural that population movement decreases as the population in their 20s and 30s, who move frequently, decreases and the elderly population increases. The decrease in housing sales this year compared to last year is also believed to have had some impact."

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