Is Seoul To Blame For South Korea's Population Crisis? | Insight | Full Episode

South Korea's is facing a population crisis, with Seoul at the centre of it. The country’s capital remains the beneficiary of both internal and external migration. Instead, it is in the rural and peripheral areas where low birth rates and the aging population have become crises. The countryside is at risk of becoming extinct.

As more opportunities and people get concentrated in Seoul, urban pressures have led to rising unemployment and cost of living. And when things get expensive, people do not have babies. Seoul now has the lowest birthrate in South Korea, in a country with the world’s most dire fertility. On the other hand, farms and factories in the rural areas desperately need workers. How can South Korea solve this population puzzle?

00:00 Why are young people moving to Seoul?
03:50 South Korea's most prestigious universities
05:43 How South Korea's urban-rural imbalance began
07:34 Rural areas at risk of going "extinct"
11:50 Expensive living in densely populated Seoul
15:24 High pressure competition for jobs
18:28 High cost of living, low birth rate?
23:42 Schools in rural areas at risk of shutting
27:06 Why are rural areas emptying out faster in South Korea?
30:35 'Super-aging' South Korean population
34:53 Can migrant workers plug the labour shortage gap?
40:02 Can a new administrative capital convince people to move from Seoul?
41:55 More South Koreans quitting the city life

=========
ABOUT THE SHOW: Insight investigates and analyses topical issues that impact Asia and the rest of the world.
==================
#CNAInsider #CNAInsight #SouthKorea #Seoul #Population #Ageing #Fertility #Rural #University

For more, SUBSCRIBE to CNA INSIDER!

Follow CNA INSIDER on:

[DeniSaputta]

You can replace workers with machines. But machines cannot become consumers.

[Tammissa]

The pressure young people are under to succeed is so strong. Not every student will get into a top university. The mental health of those that don’t make it is really sad.

[pragueexpat]

If only companies allow 100% remote work for office workers, I'd gladly move out to a small town or a village as long as the internet connection there is good enough. I'm tired of the noise pollution, higher cost of living in a big city anyway..

[alperry]

That fact that Busan, the 2nd largest city, is at risk of collapse due to depopulation is truly terrifying. Government better figure out a way to decentralize the job market, top universities, earning opportunity from Seoul and QUICKLY.
The rural era is absolutely beautiful. It's heartbreaking

[bayjustin]

Same thing is happening in Tokyo.
It absorbs everything as the country’s population is shrinking 😢

[kazekai]

I had to agree since I traveled through South Korea recently. Even in Busan the second largest city in South Korea the amount of elderly people compared to Seoul is staggering.

[louieb.]

the problem seems to be seoul is like the center of all opprtunities, they should focus on establishing a secondary or third capital cities

[tastz]

when a nation focus on purely gdp growth in a capitalistic global economy, this is the result. Things like family, dating and work/life balance policies are not being made a priority. If you want people to have children then you have to make having a family easier in cities/country ( healthcare, good education, economic stability and alleviating the burden of children).

[mrxiong]

In America, young people don't care as much about higher education but it is the higher cost of living that is causing nobody to want to have kids.

[sharrablackfire]

Nowhere in this video did it talk about the fact that there are basically 3 pediatric surgeons in all of South Korea, and very few pediatric doctors, period. Babies and small kids die while waiting to be seen by doctors or while being transported to larger cities during a medical emergency. If the government really wanted to do something about the birth rate, they would get past the doctor strike to push for more pediatric doctors to be matriculated, and then they would INCENTIVIZE population shifts to these abandoned area. Offer grants and move 1, 000 people at a time back into these struggling rural towns. But nobody will have kids or move back if there is no healthcare system.

[Callsign-Blade_RunnerSG]

Singapore is heading there as well and deservingly so. Giving baby bonus is not effective when managements and Singapore companies are incentivised to give “poor performance” grading as a guise to working parents with care giving responsibilities whom needs to take paternity or childcare leaves to care for their very young and very old.

In other words, the baby bonus given by government is INDIRECTLY being transferred to companies as “COST SAVINGS” since they do not need to pay working parents whom just gave birth any bonus…

[IshworTraveler]

This is a time when people should explore alternative ways of living rather than sticking to traditional paths. I believe that the current trend of pursuing corporate careers and living in expensive cities may not be the most fulfilling. Instead, individuals should consider returning to smaller towns and villages to build a different, more meaningful life

[kristinesharp]

The hierarchy is to blame. 23% successful. 23% failures. Everyone else just struggling. You are your rank in school, the house you live in, the family you have or don’t have, you are the neighborhood you live in. Strongly responsible is the government telling everyone to stop having kids from 1960 on ward. Mandatory military and college for all made everyone postpone family 4-6 years and delay fertility. The older you are when you start a family the fewer children you have, if at all. In 1980 they got to 2.0. They worked everyone to death, no family life. But they kept going. Then in addition the kids ended up in mandatory study until all hours. No one grew up with family. Instead they grew up living off mom and dad until their 30’s. Who wants to support a kid until the kid’s 30’s? The country got greedy with irrational growth. Before you were poor if you could not afford the school fee. Now school is free, lunches free, rice abundant and everyone has several pairs of shoes but it’s too expensive. The only thing that helped delay population decline is elders started to live until 80 instead of 60. Or they would have seen the effects in the 90’s.

[tarunika]

Because they're obsessed with Brands, Life style and beauty standards.

[msecat]

This looks like it's a global issue. I'm in my late thirties and always thought by now I'd have children and a home of my own. I don't, and can't forsee if I can in the near future. I just don't earn enough. How can I dare to dream of a family when I can barely even look after myself? It's so disheartening that now my dream is to get through life quietly, pass in peace, and hope to never, ever come back to this place.

[karlociriacruz]

Similar to other places, business districts in the Philippines are concentrated in Metro Manila. This centralization drives people from the provinces to migrate to Manila in search of opportunities, leading to skyrocketing prices for goods and housing, severe traffic congestion, widespread pollution, and an overburdened transportation system that struggles to accommodate the daily influx of commuters. The challenges I’ve mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg—there's much more beneath the surface, including issues like crime and poverty.

[intreoo]

My mom's from Busan, the busiest port and 2nd largest city in South Korea, and even she moved north to Seoul for more opportunity. Seoul is draining the rest of Korea out.

[Zergcerebrates]

They should encourage private companies to relocate to other parts of the country that’s one way to entice people away from Seoul.

[thegoldstandard]

This is happening in all developed nations. As manufacturing, farming and trade jobs disappear...everyone goes to the city for banking, engineering and government jobs while the middle class and lower class go to service the upper class as drivers, servers and retail. And city people do not have as many kids as rural and the vicious cycle goes round and round.

[tonysaidhi]

I know a Cambodian lady that married a Korean and is desperately trying to raise their daughter as korean as much as possible. Several years back, she bought her daughter to Cambodia to meet her extended family. The girl picked up some Khmer phrases and used it in school. The teacher overheard it and summoned her mother to school for a meeting. The meeting was nothing more than a scold down for allowing her daughter to learn Khmer.

This lady is now a Korean citizen and is fluent in Korean with a Korean university degree. She works as an official translator for the government. She also, on her own time, helps other Cambodian navigate through the legal system. She dedicate most of time on helping Cambodians collect wages from Korean owners that refuse to pay what is legally required.

Korea has problems but a lot of its are of their own making rooted in racism.