In August of last year, during the summer vacation season, the number of visitors to Yangyang County in Gangwon Province was found to be more than 28 times greater than the registered population living in the area. Visitors are analyzed to be spending an average of more than 110,000 won, positively impacting the local economy.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Statistics Korea announced on the 27th that they calculated the living population in areas experiencing population decline for the third quarter of last year. The living population is calculated by adding the registered population and registered foreigners to the transient population (those staying once a month for more than three hours a day).
The data utilized in this calculation is a pseudonymized combination of materials from ten institutions, including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Justice's resident registration and foreign registration data, three telecommunications companies (SK Telecom, KT, LG U+), four card companies (Shinhan, BC, Samsung, Hana), and a credit information company (Korea Credit Bureau). Statistics Korea conducted a multifaceted analysis of the scale of living and transient populations by region in accordance with the announcement, including the activity characteristics and consumption characteristics of each population decline area.
According to the survey results, the living population of the 89 areas experiencing population decline nationwide in the third quarter of last year peaked in August. It was recorded at 33.62 million, an increase of about 5.14 million compared to June of last year. The transient population was about 28.72 million, and the registered population was about 4.89 million. The ratio of the transient population to the registered population increased to 5.9 times, up from 4.8 times in June of last year.
In particular, the transient population in Yangyang County in Gangwon Province in August of last year reached 28.2 times that of the registered population, showing the largest gap nationwide. The multiple of the transient population in Gangwon, including Yangyang, was 11.8 times.
The transient population in population decline areas, including Yangyang County, is analyzed to play an important role in the local economy. The average card spending per person in the entire population decline area was 112,000 won in the third quarter of last year.
In the overall population decline areas, relatively high spending was observed in the fields of personal services, healthcare, and education, but in Gangwon, spending on food, culture, and leisure was prominent. The card spending of the transient population was at a level of about 45% of the registered population's card spending, particularly surpassing 50% in Gangwon and the metropolitan area.
Lee Hyung-il, head of Statistics Korea, noted, "I hope various support policies that invigorate the population decline areas at risk of extinction can be established through the living population calculated by Statistics Korea," and added, "In the future, Statistics Korea will strive to produce useful statistics such as living populations to fully support data-driven policies of the digital platform government."