South Koreans find countryside living less attractive than before

[Photo by MK DB]

The number of South Koreans migrating to the countryside fell by more than 12 percent last year from a year ago as the popularity waned, with more people feeling rural areas are less convenient and offer fewer job opportunities.

According to data released by Statistics Korea on Thursday, the number of households moving to the countryside for various reasons, such as for farming, stood at 332,131 last year, down 12.3 percent from a year ago. The number of households returning to the countryside for farming fell by 13.5 percent, those returning to their hometowns by 12.3 percent and those returning for fishing by 16.2 percent.

All of the three figures represent the steepest decline so far.

“The number of people moving to the countryside rose by an unusually large figure in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic,” said an unnamed official from Statistics Korea. “The numbers are readjusting to the average level as daily life begins to recover.”

There were 12,411 households that moved to the rural areas for farming last year, down 13.5 percent from a year ago. It is the first double-digit decline since related data began to be compiled in 2013.

The average age of householders of the families engaged in farm work was 56.4 years old, up 0.6 year from the previous year. Data showed that 31.6 percent of the householders were in their 50s and 38.2 percent in their 60s.

More than seven out of 10 households were single-member households. Among families, 8,679 were full-time farmers, accounting for 68.6 percent of the entire figure, data showed.

The most popular destination for farming was North Gyeongsang Province, followed by South Jeolla Province and South Chungcheong Province.