South Korea Population

 

 

 

General

Koreans are primarily one ethnic family and speak one language. Sharing distinct physical characteristics, they are believed to be descendants of several Mongol tribes that migrated onto the Korean Peninsula from Central Asia
As of the end of 2005, Korea's total population was estimated at 48,294,000 with a density of 474 people per square kilometer. The population of North Korea is estimated to be 22,928,040.
Korea saw its population grow by an annual rate of 3 percent during the 1960s, but growth slowed to 2 percent over the next decade. In 2005, the rate stood at 0.44 percent and is expected to further decline to 0.01 percent by 2020.
A notable trend in Korea's demographics is that it is growing older with each passing year. Statistics show that 6.9 percent of the total population of Korea was 65 years or older in 1999, and 9.1 percent was in 2005.
In the 1960s, Korea's population distribution formed a pyramid shape, with a high birth rate and relatively short life expectancy. However, age-group distribution is now shaped more like a bell because of the low birth rate and extended life expectancy. Youths (15 and younger) will make up a decreasing portion of the total, while senior citizens (65 and older) will account for some 15.7 percent of the total by the year 2020.
The nation's rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in the 1960s and 1970s has been accompanied by continuing migration of rural residents into the cities, particularly Seoul, resulting in heavily populated metropolitan areas. However, in recent years, an increasing number of Seoulites have begun moving to suburban areas.
It was estimated by the Population Reference Bureau that 82% of the population lived in urban areas in 2001. The capital city, Seoul, had a population of 9,935,000 in that year. Other large urban areas were Pusan, 4,239,000; Taegu, 2,559,000; Inch'on, 2,837,000; Kwangju, 1,665,000; Taejon, 1,431,000; Pun'chon, 1,264,000; Suwon, 1,268,000; and Ulsan, 967,000. According to the United Nations, the urban population growth rate for 2000– 2005 was 1.4%.
Population :
48,846,823 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure :
0-14 years : 18.9% (male 4,844,083/female 4,368,139)
15-64 years : 71.9% (male 17,886,148/female 17,250,862)
65 years and over : 9.2% (male 1,818,677/female 2,678,914) (2006 est.)
Median age :
total : 35.2 years
male : 34.2 years
female : 36.3 years (2006 est.)
Population growth rate :
0.42% (2006 est.)
Birth rate :
10 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate :
5.85 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate :
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

TOTAL LAND AREA

Korea

Korean agricultural lanscape

Agriculture in Korea

THE TOTAL LAND AREA OF KOREA is 9,965 ha, which accounts for 0.22% of the Asian continent. Of this land area, approximately 20% or 1,824 ha is arable land as of 2005. Located in a temperate monsoon belt with four distinct seasons, an average temperature of 11oC, and an annual rainfall of 1,300 mm, dropping to about half between June and August, Korea has only 7 months of frost-free period suitable for agricultural activities, mostly devoted to paddy and other upland crops. The arable land per farm household is about 1.43 ha and its use rate is 104.7% as of 2005.
Rural population in 2005 numbered 3.4 million which is about 7% of the total population. There has been a rapid decrease in the ratio of rural population to total population during the 1970s-1980s, from 44.7% in 1970 to 15.5% in 1990 and 8.5% in 2000. The number of farm households and its average number of people are 1.27 million households and 2.7 persons, respectively, which have also shown continuous declining pattern due to migration of rural residents to the urban area. The aging population is sharply and constantly rising among rural population so that the ratio of over 60 to the total rural population is rapidly rising from 10.5% in 1980 to 40.3% in 2004. These demographic situations have caused chronic labor shortages and increased production costs in rural areas during a comparatively short farming season in terms of planting and harvesting demand.
Availability of major farm machineries such as farm tractor, combine and controller has largely increased since the 1980s. Most rice farming areas have been mechanized while farming for upland crops has remained low in terms of mechanization rate. Use of chemical fertilizer keeps going down since the early 1990s due to the growing concerns on soil acidification and environmental issues, and consumers’ needs for safe foods. Seeds industry is run by private companies and almost all seeds are permitted to be sold in the country. As the UR Agreement was settled and agricultural business restructuring has been actively under way since the 1990s, capital and technology-intensive farming has increased so that the amount of capital against land shows 2.75 times the productivity of land as of 2005.