[New Social Geography] It Has Been 25 Years Since Daejeon Surpassed Gwangju in Population...

Gwangju and Daejeon Representing Honam and Chungcheong
Gwangju's Population Lead Ended in 1998
Daejeon and Gwangju Both Facing Population Decline 'Shared Plight'

Editor's Note‘New Social Atlas’ is a series that approaches national statistics as if looking into a social atlas that provided both information and fun during school days. It explores South Korea's past and present through various interesting statistics, including population and area.

Gwangju Metropolitan City, representing Honam, and Daejeon Metropolitan City, representing Chungcheong, have long been rivals in terms of population size. The reason why Gwangju has long been perceived as a larger city than Daejeon is closely related to the history of the cities.

In fact, considering the timing of the transition to the direct control city (the predecessor of metropolitan cities) system, Gwangju is senior to Daejeon.

Gwangju was incorporated into the direct control city system in January 1986, following Busan, Incheon, and Daegu. Daejeon became a direct control city in January 1989. This is why when talking about major cities in South Korea, the order after Seoul is Busan, then Incheon and Daegu, followed by Gwangju, and then Daejeon.

Politically, Yeongnam and Honam have effectively divided the presidency between them. Honam has been perceived as more politically significant than Chungcheong. However, as social realities have changed with shifts in population size and urban restructuring, the status of major cities has also changed significantly from the past.

The scene of the "Creating a Workplace Without Discrimination in Daejeon" campaign held in front of Daejeon Station on the morning of September 16 last year.

The populations of Gwangju and Daejeon provide good data to observe these changes in trends.

According to the National Statistical Portal of Statistics Korea, in 1995, Gwangju's registered population was 1,285,633, while Daejeon's registered population was 1,265,081. Gwangju had about 20,000 more people than Daejeon. However, in 1998, Daejeon's population surpassed Gwangju's. Daejeon's population was 1,341,413, and Gwangju's was 1,339,441.

The fact that Daejeon had a larger population than Gwangju dates back as far as 25 years ago. Despite having surpassed Gwangju's population so long ago, many still believe Gwangju has a larger population. This is because the public has ingrained the idea that Gwangju was incorporated as a direct control city first.

Gwangju and Daejeon continued to grow as representative cities of Honam and Chungcheong, respectively. By 2014, Gwangju's population had increased to 1,475,884, while Daejeon's population reached 1,531,809. The population gap between the two cities widened to nearly 60,000.

Daejeon seemed poised for continuous expansion, but a variable emerged: the establishment of Sejong Special Self-Governing City in July 2012. Sejong was a city growing under national policy and acted like a black hole, drawing population from the entire Chungcheong area.

Since the emergence of Sejong City, Daejeon's population has steadily declined. It was 1.46 million in 2020, 1.45 million in 2021, 1.44 million in 2022, and as of April 2023, 1,445,214. Considering Daejeon's population decline trend, one might wonder if Gwangju's population has overtaken Daejeon's again.

Gwangju, meanwhile, has experienced the direct impact of population decline without finding a turning point, even as Daejeon’s population shrinks due to the Sejong shockwave.

Gwangju's population decreased from 1.47 million in 2014 to 1.45 million in 2020, 1.44 million in 2021, 1.43 million in 2022, and as of April 2023, 1,426,625. Gwangju still has about 20,000 fewer people than Daejeon.

Daejeon's population advantage has lasted for over 20 years. However, the population gap, which once approached 60,000, has narrowed to about 10,000 to 20,000.

Although Daejeon has long been the city with a larger population than Gwangju, it has clearly failed to maintain a lead and now faces the risk of being overtaken again. Gwangju, too, has not regained its status as South Korea's fifth-largest city and is enduring the hardship of population decline.

Daejeon and Gwangju remain major cities representing Chungcheong and Honam, respectively, but in terms of population, neither side is in a position to celebrate, living through a shared era of hardship.