South Korea’s second city fears demographic disaster

Eh Seo was born and raised in the southern port of South Korea, but never doubted that he would study and work elsewhere.

“Not only my parents, but everyone’s parents wanted their children to move to Seoul,” said Three-year-old Seon South KoreaThe second largest city is directly after school and now works in the capital. “I wanted to go, and I have no regrets.”

For most of the 20th century, Barra was a prosperous node of trade and industry. But the city is now in the young man’s emigration, which has left it faster than any other metro level, which already has the lowest level of fertility in the world.

On the south-eastern edge of the Korean Peninsula, Busan’s fortune has worsened since the 1990s, as the local industries suffer from South Korea’s transition to a high-tech industrial economy.

The Korean Employment Information Service, the State Agency, officially ranked bark as “risk of destruction” last year, when the disability between working and non-working populations makes the city economically unstable.

Between 1995 and 2023, the city shed 3.3 million people.

Busan maintains both charms and assets: mountains and beaches, temples and nightliness, famous film and art festivals, both Japan and Industrial centers, which are clustered on the eastern shores of South Korea.

Although it was the leading city of Conglomerates Samsung and LG, one of the 100 largest companies in South Korea was not located in the city.

“The outflow of young people is becoming more increasing,” said Seon. “Every time I return, I can see it losing its vitality.”

Busan boomed in the second half of the 19th century due to its neighborhood for the Japanese trade and introduction to the Japanese trade and later colonization.

Japanese manufacturers have set business plants by producing cheap products from rubber and shoes to wood. After the defeat of Tokyo in World War II, the factories were adopted by Koreans, and Barran received an increase in Japan returnees.

North Korea’s 1950 invasion suggested the second wave of arrivals during the South Korean government, when she was temporarily retreated from Seoul flower. Between 1945 and 1951, the population of the city increased from 280,000 to 840,000.

Busan used in the 1960s and in the 1960s, and built an industrial corridor in the 1960s, which was built between the Barran port of Seoul, which serves as a major commercial junction for the prosperity economy.

But the city of the city turned, as South Korea came out of cheap consumer goods, in which Busen factories specialize.

The Korean economy is more and more powerful, with the production and export of more complex products, was exemplary by Samsung Electronics’ Shialics CABONFUCTOR.

Universities and research institutes migrated to meet the demand for skilled workers. The port of the West Coast on the West Coast, Seoul, is closer and more convenient for trading to trade with China, as a country’s leading export loop.

“The next governments have pursued a national focus policy as a maximum way to compete with Japan and China,” said Juni-Sedung. “We stayed back.”

Lei Sang-Hoe, known as Case, said that the concentration and other regional economic centers of South Korea “declined to be aggravated by activating it from China.”

“Most of the large provincial cities outside the country’s metro have such a phenomenon,” said Lee. “In a small population, rural areas were the first to be struck, followed by small and medium cities, and now it hits metro areas such as fluoride.

He added that many young people from Bill could still find production work in the southeastern industrial junctions, women should have more Seoul to find the work of the service.

Local civil groups claim that the fall of the city has escalated by the mistake of local self-government bodies.

Baby gap

This is the fourth article series On a global demographic crisis, as the population level is defined for shrinking

Part 1: Politicians want more children, but their policy is terminated

Part 2: Kenya – African Demographic Future window

Part 3: The land that left migration

Part 4: South Korea’s second city is afraid of demographic catastrophe

Lee Seal-Han, Secretary General of the Social Welfare Solidarity of the Civil Group, said that instead of finding new growth areas for the local economy, successful mayors sold public lands on the outskirts of the city. Sales are fed by a real estate boom that is burning by foreigners who go to luxury water pipes as investments.

The result, Lin said that he should benefit the elderly owners at the expense of the young residents, which is not yet on the housing ladder, expanding a generation of living in the city.

“They acted more like property makers than mayors,” said Lee. “Busant literally means” many mountains “, but now we call it” many apartments. “

Lee Sang-Ho King-Hon noted that the Human Business Beach Resort, which was developed in the 1990s, is known as “Korean Copasba”, one of the highest risk indicators. The index is based on the ratio of female residents of 20 to 39 and populates over the age of 65.

Hotspent[Haeundae] There is a place where the increase is made, but young people can’t live there, “said Lee. “Most local residents live in areas with high heights, as the city becomes more and more polarized.”

But the deputy mayor Lee Juni-Seal said that in the 1980s and the main problem of the city in the 1980s was a lack of housing, industrial lands and proper transport ties.

Observers say that even Seoul, who succeeds in the young people of the country, is on his own demographic crisis, as they respond to the brutal competition of well-paid jobs and education.

0.72 The level of the Fertility of South Korea. The average number of children, which woman will bring in its lifetime, was in 2023 the lowest in the world. But despite the involvement of young people from the whole country, the fertility level of Seoul was even lower at 0.55 in 2023. OECD considers 2.1 Fertility exchange rate, it is necessary to provide a widely stable population.

“From 2020 to 2050, the population of Busan will drop by 33.57%, during the same period, the population of Seoul will decrease by 21.45%,” says Kim Se-for the Head of the Institute of Business Development.

“The difference is that the population of labor will be a much higher decline in the labor force,” Kim said, despite the fall, despite the risk of “destruction” too far.

Economists note that the decline in regional economies is completely easier, as the centralized model of South Korea is no longer seen by GDP.

The Bank of Korea has reduced the country’s GDP growth forecast from 2025 to 1.6-1.7 percent, 2.3 percent forecast of 2.3 percent.

The governor of the Central Bank Rhee Chang-Yong said to Financial Times Last year, “drastic solutions”, including the cap for a university admission from the most entrance to Seoul, were required to encourage people to leave Seoul and return to regional spheres.

Busan Deputy Mayor Lee Juni-Seal has said that the city needs more autonomy, including the development of the Financial Authority to attract skilled young workers.

He also said that immigration was “crucial”, outlining special regional visa students and special regional visas for students of Southeast Asia.

But Lin Sang-there said that without setting the basis of unequal regional development, immigrants are similar to the immigrants.

The country’s political class, which is still deviated from President Yun Sukin In December, the Declaration of Military LawShowed little sign of ability to achieve deep reorganization of the country’s flag-bearing economy.

At the same time, Busanites such as Yang Mi-Sook, the head of the local citizens’ campaign group, mourns the city’s fall, as thousands of people continue to leave every month.

“It’s so sad and disappointing,” he said. “The government must accept that we have a serious problem, after all, without any citizen, it will not leave politicians.”