Gwanak-gu's Challenge to Become a 'Youth-Friendly City of Korea'

Efforts to Create a Youth-Friendly City in Gwanak-gu, Seoul Continue Steadily Since 2018
Gwanak-gu, Seoul, with the Highest Youth Population Ratio, Serves as a Base for Spreading Youth-Friendly City Initiatives to Other Local Governments

Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) has passed the first hurdle set by Seoul City to be selected as a youth-friendly city and is challenging to become the first youth-friendly city designated in South Korea.

A youth-friendly city is defined as a local government with an environment conducive to youth living and growth potential. Among metropolitan local governments nationwide, two basic local governments are recommended to the Office for Government Policy Coordination, which then evaluates and selects three final local governments.

Previously, Seoul City recommended Gwanak-gu as Seoul’s representative youth-friendly city to the Office for Government Policy Coordination in the first year of youth-friendly city designation. The selected local governments hold the youth-friendly city status for five years from the date of designation.

In fact, Gwanak-gu has the highest youth population ratio nationwide (41.4%) and has proactively implemented various policies for youth, gaining attention as a hub for spreading youth policies to other local governments.

The district established a dedicated youth policy department in 2018 and, in 2022, created the city’s first ‘Youth Culture Bureau’ to systematically promote youth-related policies and projects, build related infrastructure, and foster a youth culture ecosystem.

In particular, to involve youth in local communities and public policies, public forums such as the ‘Youth Policy Committee’ and ‘Youth Network’ were created to reflect local youth opinions in policies. Over five years, 19 projects were adopted, including the ‘Gang Gam-chan Youth Interview Studio,’ ‘Support for Youth Language and Qualification Exam Fees,’ and ‘Free Health Checkups for Youth.’ (3 projects in 2020, 5 in 2021, 5 in 2022, 3 in 2023, and 3 in 2024)

Additionally, the district is striving to enable youth to engage in various activities with peace of mind through spatial welfare initiatives such as ‘Gwanak Youth Center’ and ‘Sillim-dong Three Room.’

Opened in 2023, the ‘Gwanak Youth Center’ is a ‘youth-exclusive building’ used solely by young people, meeting the demand for youth space activities. In fact, this year, the number of users of the ‘Gwanak Youth Center’ increased by 220% compared to the previous year, with about 80,000 youth visiting annually.

Opened in 2019, ‘Sillim-dong Three Room’ was created to provide alternative spaces such as living rooms, studies, and workrooms for youth living in one-room apartments and goshiwon (small dormitory-style rooms). It currently holds the largest membership among Seoul youth centers (about 52,000 members) and plays a vital role as a delivery system for youth policies.

The district is also active in supporting youth employment and entrepreneurship. Especially leveraging the advantage of having excellent talent and technology from Seoul National University, it has established startup incubation spaces where small venture companies can grow as new growth engines.

This has led to an increase in youth employment rates. According to Statistics Korea in 2024, the youth employment rate in Gwanak-gu was 53.5%, which is 2.6 percentage points higher than the Seoul city average.

Efforts to become a youth culture-centered city continue. The district has held the ‘Youth Festival’ six times and successfully hosted ‘Groove in Gwanak,’ a national street dance competition, expanding youth culture to all generations. As a result of these achievements, Gwanak-gu was selected as an excellent city for the 6th United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) International Culture Award.

In April this year, the district changed its urban brand to ‘Gwanak, the Youth Capital of South Korea,’ preparing for a new leap toward becoming a youth-friendly city. At this year’s ‘Gwanak Youth Festival,’ the district announced its youth-friendly city vision and presented the slogan ‘Hope, Participation, and Leap ? Gwanak, the Special Youth City.’ This vision keyword was selected through a youth-friendly city policy forum held earlier, where youth stakeholders from various sectors deliberated.

Park Jun-hee, Mayor of Gwanak-gu, said, “Gwanak-gu has steadily prepared to be designated as a youth-friendly city by proactively discovering infrastructure and policies for youth.” He added, “We will continue to identify and support youth in blind spots, promote systematic education to nurture future talent for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and unwaveringly implement youth-friendly policies by utilizing Gwanak-gu’s unique resources, characteristics, and the asset of youth.”