Journal of the Korean Geographical Society ISSN:1225-6633(Print) 대한지리학회지

This paper analyzed changes in population size from 1995 to 2020, targeting rural areas (Myeon). Despite the increase in population at the national level, the population of Myeon has decreased significantly as urbanization entered an acceleration stage. The increase in the population of Myeon was evident when development progressed gradually under the influence of ex-urbanization in the hinterland of a metropolis. However, as the trend of population decline was maintained without securing a clear growth engine in many regions, the polarization of population distribution has intensified. Rural areas with a strong tendency to decrease in population are mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of Baekdu-daegan from Gangwon-do to Jeollanam-do and in places where spatial interaction is not smooth due to low traffic accessibility. Over the past 25 years, the trend of fluctuations in population size has not changed in more than 65% of all Myeons. Recently, 89% of the total rural area has been depopulated along with a decrease in population size. The trend of depopulation became stronger moving further away from Seoul and Busan. The growth engine introduced from the outside served as a driving force to temporarily increase the population, but the ripple effect did not last for a long time.