Adapting Regional Policy in Korea
Preparing Regions for Demographic Change
The study is part of the OECD work stream Preparing Regions for Demographic Change, a megatrend that affects several important dimensions of public policy. The following three of them are particular relevant for Korea’s regions and rural places: (i) workforce dimension, (ii) social dimension and (iii) governance dimension. The report consists of three chapters. The first chapter depicts and benchmarks demographic trends in Korea regions against other regions from OECD countries. The second chapter examines a range of policies that can address socio-economic challenges related to demographic trends across the OECD and describes Korea’s current policy approach to manage demographic decline and ageing in regions and rural places. The third chapter identifies recommendations for Korea that can help respond to current economic and demographic trends, and ensure social cohesion. It suggests Korea should aim to develop a clear national rural development strategy, tailor labour policies to rural areas, support rural entrepreneurship, rural SME and the social economy, promote rural innovation and foster local governments’ and communities’ capacity to respond to demographic challenges.
Foreword
Since the 1950s, OECD countries, including Korea, have experienced three important demographic trends. The first has been a steady increase in the share of the total population living in urban areas, reflecting both internal migration from rural areas, and inflows of migrants from other countries. This has led to the rural share of national populations declining even in those countries where rural populations grew in absolute numbers. A second trend has been the growing sprawl of urban economies to absorb neighbouring rural regions, as part of their functional urban areas. The third trend is an absolute decline in the number of rural people present in a number of OECD countries, reflecting a combination of falling fertility rates and ongoing outmigration and ageing. Until recently, in most OECD countries fertility rates in rural areas exceeded those in urban areas, allowing the rural population to stabilise or increase, despite the high rates of outmigration. More recently, rural fertility rates have shrunk to the same level as in urban areas, and in many OECD countries this level was below the natural replacement rate.
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