More Young People Move to Satellite Cities

More young people are moving to the hi-tech satellite cities surrounding the capital like Hwaesong in Gyeonggi Province as older industrial towns are emptying out.

Hwaesong saw the greatest influx of people aged 20 to 39 in the country over the last four years, while Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province saw the biggest exodus of people in that age group.

Hwaseong is home to factories and research centers by big tech employers like Samsung and Hyundai, while the industrial town of Changwon suffered the double whammy of the government's nuclear phaseout and a depressed automotive parts and heavy industry.

The Korea Economic Research Institute analyzed population changes in 229 cities and districts across the country and found that Hwaseong's population of people in their 20s and 30s increased by around 52,000.

The satellite cities of Siheung, Hanam and Gimpo ranked second, fourth and fifth as they lure younger people with cheaper apartment prices than Seoul.

But a majority of cities in the top 10 are dominated by Samsung. Pyeongtaek south of Seoul, which is home to Samsung's memory chip factories, came in third.

The Yeonsu District in Incheon, where Samsung Biologics and its affiliate Samsung Bioepis are headquartered, and Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, home to Samsung Electronics plants and Samsung SDI, ranked seventh and eighth.

At the other end of the scale, Changwon saw the number of residents in their 20s and 30s shrink from some 300,000 in 2017 to 257,000 this year as its major heavy and machinery industries suffered a depression.

Doosan Heavy Industries, which is based in the southeastern port city, laid off workers due to the government's nuclear phaseout policy, while Hyundai Rotem and other manufacturing giants with production facilities there have declined.