An analysis found that the so-called "in-Seoul" move—leaving the provinces for the Seoul metropolitan area—no longer guarantees a better life or upward mobility. It was found that even access to the metropolitan area itself diverges depending on parents' economic background.
On the 27th, the education community said a recent report published by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) introduced these findings in the "OECD Korea Economic Report 2026." The OECD, together with the Bank of Korea, tracked the lives of 1,000 people born between 1971 and 1990 and their parents from 1998 to 2023 over the long term. It found that young people who left their hometowns and settled in the metropolitan area earned more than those who stayed in the provinces, but the ladder effect of leaping across social classes has been fading. Wallets may have gotten a bit thicker, but it has become harder to build wealth that surpasses their parents' generation.
Through the report, the OECD said, "Competition for top-tier universities and a lack of quality jobs are keeping young people moving to the metropolitan area, but recent studies show that relocation to the capital region is no longer the path to prosperity it once was." This weakening of social mobility was especially pronounced among those surveyed born in the 1980s, a relatively younger cohort among the sample.
Moreover, it was found that from the very stage when provincial youth try to enter the metropolitan area, the size of their parents' asset holdings becomes a decisive obstacle or stepping-stone. That is because parental support is essential to withstand the crushing housing prices and living costs in big cities. If a household's means are limited, moving to a major city itself is difficult, which ultimately leads to being fundamentally cut off from opportunities to access top-tier universities or solid jobs concentrated in Seoul.
The biggest barrier holding back non-capital-area youth was cited as Seoul's enormous housing expense. In fact, the share of homes in Seoul that a median-income household in Korea could afford was 32% in 2012, but fell to 7% last year.
The OECD predicted that the more people continue to flock only to the metropolitan area, the more the provinces will suffer a vicious cycle of rapid population decline, labor shortages and, further, the collapse of local economies. It advised that balanced development policies are urgently needed to help ensure ample opportunities in the regions as well, such as raising local employment conditions and education levels and widely building out transportation networks and information and communications infrastructure.