[News Terms] 'Population Impact Assessment' Proposed Amid Low Birthrate Emergency

'Population Impact Assessment' is a system that proactively predicts the significant effects that the establishment and implementation of policies, plans, and projects may have on the population structure and the daily lives of residents in a region, and proposes appropriate alternatives.

In other words, similar to environmental impact assessments or regulatory impact assessments, it predicts and evaluates the effects that specific development projects may have on population concentration or growth, so that the government or local governments can reflect this in the establishment of various laws and policies.

Newborn baby.
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In the past, population policies were biased toward 'population suppression' in the metropolitan area and 'population increase' in local regions. Experts argue that through population impact assessments, it is possible to preemptively identify and review the impacts on ultra-low birth rates, aging, regional extinction, administrative function integration, and tax revenue changes, thereby mitigating side effects caused by rapid changes in population structure. This means preventing the oversupply and idleness of various social infrastructure due to future changes in population structure and avoiding inefficient budget execution.

Currently, four metropolitan local governments?Seoul, Busan, Gyeonggi, and Gyeongnam?are implementing the population impact assessment system, but it has not yet been implemented at the government level. In particular, Seoul and Gyeonggi Province are receiving attention for proactively responding to population changes. Going a step further than population impact assessments, Seoul plans to operate a 'Population Change Response Committee' starting next year, and Gyeonggi Province intends to introduce a 'Population-Aware Budget' in next year's budget proposal.

As the government’s low birth rate measures, into which 280 trillion won has been poured over the past 15 years, have failed to achieve results, there is a strong call for fundamental changes in population policy. Especially noteworthy is the report titled 'Population Strategy and Governance Reform (Draft) Study (Research Director: Professor Lee Samsik, Department of Policy Studies, Hanyang University),' submitted last October to the Presidential Committee on Low Birth Rate and Aging Society.

The report proposed granting execution and budget authority to the Low Birth Rate and Aging Society Committee to expand and reorganize the organization into a National Population and Future Committee system, establishing a special minister for population or a dedicated department for population issues, and introducing population impact assessments and a special population account.