[News Terms] What Is the 'Saenghwal Ingu' to Be Introduced Next Year?

A crowded scene at Hongdae Street in Mapo-gu, Seoul.
Photo by Yonhap News Agency

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jonghwa] The resident population refers to people who live in or stay in a specific area. It includes those registered as residents under the Resident Registration Act, people staying temporarily, and foreigners.

'People staying temporarily' refers to those who attend workplaces or schools located outside their registered residence, or those visiting the area for tourism or business purposes, with a stay frequency of at least once a month. 'Foreigners' include those registered as foreigners under the Immigration Control Act and those who have reported their residence in Korea under the Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans.

Accordingly, workation workers who work remotely from vacation spots and residents who live five days a week in the city and spend two days on weekends in rural areas, known as '5do2chon', are also classified as the resident population of those areas.

On the 20th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced at the Cabinet meeting the enactment of the enforcement decree of the 'Special Act on Support for Population Declining Areas,' which specifies the requirements for the resident population, to be implemented from January 1 next year.

The government's purpose in identifying and compiling the resident population is to enable policies that reflect population movement. Seoul City has already been utilizing resident population statistics estimated in cooperation with KT since March 2018.

According to the Seoul Open Data Plaza, as of the 15th, the average daily resident population (24-hour average) in Seoul was 11,049,000. Among them, domestic residents numbered 10,504,000, long-term foreign residents 399,000, and short-term foreign residents 147,000.

The maximum daily resident population was 11,432,000, and the minimum was 10,691,000, with a difference of 741,000 between the maximum and minimum daily resident populations. The daytime resident population from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. was 11,359,000, the nighttime resident population from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day was 10,828,000, and the population living in Seoul but from outside Seoul was 1,503,000.

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