From the Donga:
The results of agriculture, forestry and fishery surveys in 2005, released by the National Statistical Office on November 2, show that the aged population over 65 reached 29.1% in rural areas at the end of last year, which is 3.1 times more than the whole aged population nationwide (9.3%).
Between the aging (and thus shrinking) population and the impact of the increased number of marriages with foreign women, Korea’s countryside is going to have a very different feel to it in a couple of decades.
I already was already seeing the effect of population decline in Mungyeong when I lived there in the late 1990s. Eventually, the area will be little more than an agricultural district.
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The population is aging, but it looks like it’s living longer and possibly healthier as it ages. I base my assertion on the fact that I don’t see as many old women and men walking hunched over as I used to. I also see a lot more men who have had a stroke, so the survival rate seems to have gone up.
Aren’t ALL Koreans getting older (and at a pace 1-1.5 years faster than their chronological age, thanks to “Korean age”)?
There are other things happening out in the countryside as well. More people buy unused farmland, back in small towns and start burying people on it so that one will come across graves in many odd, out of the way places. This is not good since it is literally turning the countryside (in some areas) into graveyards, thus ruining otherwise fertile land.
Another result of depopulation of the countryside is that certain species of animals have returned in numbers, particularly the wild pigs (boars). They have come back so much so that it is now dangerous in some places to go out into the mountains without some sort of weapon. One possible good thing from this is that other species have returned as well and according to what I read, there is a growing demand for wild pig meat in Europe and the U.S. since this is considered “organic” meat. This would be the perfect opportunity for some enterprising Korean to make some real money for little investment. I also think that some company could start a tour where guys go into the countryside to hunt down wild pig with spears — just like ones ancestors did — and have a feast. This would be very popular I suspect.
It’s a very interesting sensation to be in small rural towns in Korea and see Vietnamese women pushing strollers through market. Anyone else experienced this?