South Korea Urbanization
Unavailable
Figure 7. Rural and Urban Population Distribution, Selected
Years, 1955-85
Source: Based on information from Korea Institute for
Population and Health, Journal of Population and Health Studies
[Seoul], 8, No. 2, December 1988, 19, 22.
Typical housing outside the city wall, Seoul, 1904
Courtesy Prints and Photographs Division, Library of
Congress
Typical housing, Seoul, 1989
Courtesy Oren Hadar
Like other newly industrializing economies, South Korea
experienced rapid growth of urban areas caused by the migration
of large numbers of people from the countryside. In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Seoul, by far the largest
urban settlement, had a population of about 190,000 people. There
was a striking contrast with Japan, where Edo (Tokyo) had as many
as 1 million inhabitants and the urban population comprised as
much as 10 to 15 percent of the total during the Tokugawa Period
(1600-1868). During the closing years of the Choson Dynasty and
the first years of Japanese colonial rule, the urban population
of Korea was no more than 3 percent of the total. After 1930,
when the Japanese began industrial development on the Korean
Peninsula, particularly in the northern provinces adjacent to
Manchuria, the urban portion of the population began to grow,
reaching 11.6 percent for all of Korea in 1940.
Between 1945 and 1985, the urban population of South Korea
grew from 14.5 percent to 65.4 percent of the total population
(see
fig. 7). In 1988 the Economic Planning Board estimated that
the urban portion of the population will reach 78.3 percent by
the end of the twentieth century. Most of this urban increase was
attributable to migration rather than to natural growth of the
urban population. Urban birth rates have generally been lower
than the national average. The extent of urbanization in South
Korea, however, is not fully revealed in these statistics. Urban
population was defined in the national census as being restricted
to those municipalities with 50,000 or more inhabitants. Although
many settlements with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants were
satellite towns of Seoul or other large cities or mining
communities in northeastern Kangwon Province, which would be
considered urban in terms of the living conditions and
occupations of the inhabitants, they still were officially
classified as rural.
The dislocation caused by the Korean War accounted for the
rapid increase in urban population during the early 1950s.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of them from North Korea,
streamed into the cities. During the post-Korean War period,
rural people left their ancestral villages in search of greater
economic and educational opportunities in the cities. By the late
1960s, migration had become a serious problem, not only because
cities were terribly overcrowded, but also because the rural
areas were losing the most youthful and productive members of
their labor force.
In the early 1970s, the Park Chung Hee government launched
the Saemaul undong (New Community Movement) as a rural
reconstruction and self-help movement to improve economic
conditions in the villages, close the wide gap in income between
rural and urban areas, and stem urban migration--as well as to
build a political base. Despite a huge amount of governmentsponsored publicity, especially during the Park era, it was not
clear by the late 1980s that the Saemaul undong had achieved its
objectives. By that time many, if not most, farming and fishing
villages consisted of older persons; relatively few able-bodied
men and women remained to work in the fields or to fish. This
trend was apparent in government statistics for the 1986-87
period: the proportion of people fifty years old or older living
in farming communities grew from 28.7 percent in 1986 to 30.6
percent in 1987, while the number of people in their twenties
living in farming communities declined from 11.3 percent to 10.8
percent. The nationwide percentages for people fifty years old or
older and in their twenties were, in 1986, 14.9 percent and 20.2
percent, respectively
(see Agriculture
, ch. 3).
In 1985 the largest cities were Seoul (9,645,932
inhabitants), Pusan (3,516,807), Taegu (2,030,672), Inch'on
(1,387,491), Kwangju (906,129), and Taejon (866,695). According
to government statistics, the population of Seoul, one of the
world's largest cities, surpassed 10 million people in late 1988.
Seoul's average annual population growth rate during the late
1980s was more than 3 percent. Two-thirds of this growth was
attributable to migration rather than to natural increase.
Surveys revealed that "new employment or seeking a new job," "job
transfer," and "business" were major reasons given by new
immigrants for coming to the capital. Other factors cited by
immigrants included "education" and "a more convenient area to
live."
To alleviate overcrowding in Seoul's downtown area, the city
government drew up a master plan in the mid-1980s that envisioned
the development of four "core zones" by 2000: the original
downtown area, Yongdongp'o-Yoido, Yongdong, and Ch'amsil.
Satellite towns also would be established or expanded. In the
late 1980s, statistics revealed that the daytime or commuter
population of downtown Seoul was as much as six times the
officially registered population. If the master plan is
successful, many commuters will travel to work in a core area
nearer their homes, and the downtown area's daytime population
will decrease. Many government ministries have been moved out of
Seoul, and the army, navy, and air force headquarters have been
relocated to Taejon.
In 1985 the population of Seoul constituted 23.8 percent of
the national total. Provincial cities, however, experienced equal
and, in many cases, greater expansion than the capital. Growth
was particularly spectacular in the southeastern coastal region,
which encompasses the port cities of Pusan, Masan, Yosu, Chinhae,
Ulsan, and P'ohang. Census figures show that Ulsan's population
increased eighteenfold, growing from 30,000 to 551,300
inhabitants between 1960 and 1985. With the exception of Yosu,
all of these cities are in South Kyongsang Province, a region
that has been an especially favored recipient of government
development projects. By comparison, the population of Kwangju,
capital of South Cholla Province, increased less than threefold
between 1960 and 1985, growing from 315,000 to 906,129
inhabitants.
Rapid urban growth has brought familiar problems to developed
and developing countries alike. The construction of large numbers
of high-rise apartment complexes in Seoul and other large cities
alleviated housing shortages to some extent. But it also imposed
hardship on the tens of thousands of people who were obliged to
relocate from their old neighborhoods because they could not
afford the rents in the new buildings. In the late 1980s,
squatter areas consisting of one-story shacks still existed in
some parts of Seoul. Housing for all but the wealthiest was
generally cramped. The concentration of factories in urban areas,
the rapid growth of motorized traffic, and the widespread use of
coal for heating during the severe winter months have caused
dangerous levels of air and water pollution. Although
environmental awareness is increasing, a polluted environment
will adversely affect the quality of life in the cities for some
time to come.
Data as of June 1990
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