Population density in Seoul continues to deepen

The concentration of Korea's population in Seoul is deepening as a growing army of job-seekers tromps to the capital, government data showed yesterday.

According to data by Statistics Korea, Seoul is the country's most densely populated area, with 16,586 people living per square kilometer this year, slightly up from 16,582 a year earlier. Busan, the country's second-largest city, on the southeastern coast, was a distant second with 4,497.

“Since the financial crisis 10 years ago, more and more job-seekers have been moving to Seoul and its surrounding areas, pushing up the region's population density,” said a government official.

The population density in the Seoul metropolitan area - consisting of Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi - amounted to 2,068 people per square kilometer.

Gangwon is the least populated area with 87 people residing per square kilometer, or a mere 0.5 percent of Seoul's population density.

About one-fifth of the country's population, about 50 million, currently resides in Seoul, which takes up only 0.6 percent of national territory.

Yonhap