Gumi Sees Population Drop by Only 3 Last Month... Positive Sign for Population Recovery

Comprehensive Low Birthrate and Population Policy Review Meeting Held, Existing Measures to Be Fully Reconsidered

Golden Time to Overcome Population Crisis, Focus on Rapid Progress and 'Women's and Youth Settlement'

Gumi City in North Gyeongsang Province has been prioritizing overcoming the population crisis as its top policy since the launch of the 8th popularly elected administration. As a result, positive signs are emerging, such as a significant easing of the population decline that had slowed since last year.

Low Birthrate Population Comprehensive Measures Review Meeting.

As of the end of June, the population of Gumi City stood at 404,871, a decrease of just 3 people compared to the previous month. The average monthly population decrease, which was around 400 people in 2022, dropped to 300 last year and to the 100s this year. Last month, for the first time since 2022, the monthly decrease was in the single digits.

The population of Gumi City, which began to decline in 2018, saw its largest-ever drop of 4,471 people in 2022, leading to concerns that the population would fall below 400,000 by January this year. However, thanks to various positive factors, the accelerating trend appears to have reversed.

Since the start of the 8th administration, the city has attracted large-scale corporate investments totaling nearly 5.7 trillion KRW, and has been consecutively selected for key government regional development projects such as the semiconductor materials and specialized complex, defense industry innovation cluster, education development special zone, and most recently, the opportunity development special zone. The city is also undergoing rapid urban redevelopment and has secured a 2 trillion KRW municipal budget to improve infrastructure and living conditions, transforming it into a more desirable place to live.

Entering the second half of the 8th administration, Gumi City has established the Future Education and Care Bureau, setting ‘population’ as its main policy direction and focusing on ‘settlement of young women and youth’.

Starting with a special lecture for employees titled ‘Gumi City’s Strategy for Responding to Population Policy in Preparation for the Future Society’ three days ago, Mayor Kim Jangho presided over a comprehensive briefing on low birthrate and population measures, launching additional initiatives to address the population issue.

At the meeting, the city thoroughly reviewed existing low birthrate policies from the citizen’s perspective and discussed customized strategies, focusing on suggestions raised during the ‘War on Low Birthrate Field Discussion’ held in Gumi in June during Governor Lee Cheolwoo’s visit.

Main topics included support for caregiving services for hospitalized children, utilization of idle care facilities due to low birthrates, support for meal and snack costs for children using care centers at night, expansion of benefits for families with multiple children and supply of babysitters, removal of limits on infertility treatment support and out-of-pocket costs, and financial support for private postpartum care centers. The city plans to actively develop improvement measures in cooperation with North Gyeongsang Province.

There was also discussion on policies to support new residents and help youth settle in order to overcome the population decline crisis.

Various innovative ideas were presented to attract new residents, such as the Gumi Love Address Agreement System, Gumi Love Address Keeper, Gumi Love Certification System, convenience store registration for new residents, and sending welcome mobile messages to new residents.

Youth policies will also be greatly expanded, including increased academic encouragement and scholarship programs for new students, strengthened youth housing support, transportation subsidies for students commuting from outside the city, and the Gumi Youth VIP mobile card.

The main topic of the meeting was ‘settlement of young women and youth’. Although Gumi City’s population decline rate eased significantly from 1% in 2022, to 0.6% in 2023, and to 0.2% as of June 2024, the population of young people aged 19 to 39 has decreased by over 5% in the past two years, and the number of young women dropped by more than 7%, from 52,487 to 48,785.

Due to the high proportion of manufacturing in the Gumi Industrial Complex, the current employment insurance subscribers in Gumi are 63.7% male and 36.3% female, widening the gender gap. Thus, preventing the outflow of young women has become an important issue.

In the short term, the city plans to expand employment support for women who have experienced career interruptions and provide more certification training. In the long term, it will implement comprehensive measures including tailored women’s entrepreneurship programs, attracting specialized companies, and opening popular university departments within the city.

Mayor Kim Jangho said, “As a result of focusing on overcoming the population crisis over the past two years, we are seeing small but meaningful progress in easing the population decline. Looking at various statistics, now is the last golden time to solve the population issue. We will do our best to make Gumi a city where people are born, learn, and live well by creating a women-friendly city, improving living conditions, and especially implementing rapid policy changes such as public transportation innovation.”