Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, insists on the need to re-designate an area with a declining population despite a population increase of 5 over 4 years.

After designation as a population decline area in 2021, the number of people increased by 5 in 4 years.

The number of people moving in increased, but natural decline continued… “Regional extinction response fund support is needed”

(Incheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Cheon Jeong-in = With the government planning to determine 'population reduction areas' based on a survey of local governments across the country this month, attention is being paid to whether Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, will be re-designated as a population reduction area.

The population of Ganghwa-gun, which was designated as a population decline area in 2021 and has received support from the government's 'Local Extinction Response Fund', has remained stagnant for the past four years.

Although the decline appears to have been halted, Ganghwa-gun's position is that it should be re-designated as a population decline area as the structure of local extinction such as aging and natural decline still persists.

According to Ganghwa-gun on the 6th, the population of Ganghwa-gun, which was 69,693 in 2021, increased by 5 people in 4 years to 69,698 last year. Looking at the numbers alone, the population of Ganghwa-gun, an area with a declining population, has increased.

This is due to an increase in the number of people moving into Seonwon-myeon large-scale apartments (1,324 households) after 2024. As 1,325 apartments are scheduled to be supplied in 2028, the number of tenants is expected to increase further.

In relation to this, Ganghwa-gun believes that its population will decrease if the influx of people due to social factors such as relocation stops.

In fact, the number of births in Ganghwa-gun from 2021 to 2025 was around 250 per year, but the number of deaths was around 970. In other words, it can be seen that the natural population decline of about 700 people every year is continuing.

In addition, the aging of Ganghwa-gun is accelerating as the youth, young, and middle-aged populations are all decreasing.

The number of elderly people (age 65 or older) in Ganghwa-gun increases every year, increasing significantly from 23,751 (34.1%) in 2021 to 28,402 (40.8%) last year.

Ganghwa-gun's position is that support for a local extinction response fund is necessary as the structural problems accelerating local extinction have not been resolved.

From 2022 to June of this year, Ganghwa-gun has invested 33.6 billion won in 27 projects, including the 'Social Overhead Capital (SOC) Project for Areas at High Risk of Extinction', 'Local Farm Village Project', and 'Youth Complex Cultural Town Creation Project' as a local extinction response fund.

In this year's evaluation of the local extinction response fund investment plan, the county was the first in the metropolitan area to receive an S grade among population-decreasing areas nationwide, securing financial resources of 8.8 billion won.

An official from Ganghwa-gun said, “Even if the population has increased slightly rather than decreased, that alone does not determine the area with population decline,” and added, “Considering the population structure of Ganghwa-gun, where future generations are shrinking and aging is accelerating, a response through the Local Extinction Response Fund is urgently needed.”