Tongyeong City "Designates a new area with a declining population, turning it into a turning point for revitalizing the region"

(Tongyeong = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Jong-ho = Tongyeong City, Gyeongsangnam-do announced on the 7th that it will strengthen policies to restore regional vitality with the new designation of a population decline area.

According to the city, the city's registered resident population decreased by 8,716 (about 7%) from 125,383 in 2021 to 116,667 last year.

During this period, the youth population decreased by 4,691 (30.4%) and the youth population by 2,771 (16.8%), but the population aged 65 or older increased by 5,551 (21.0%).

The city explained that changes in the population structure due to low birth rates and aging are occurring in the region, with the proportion of the population over 65 years of age increasing from 21.1% to 27.4%, the number of births decreasing from 433 to 294, and the scale of natural population decline increasing from 575 to 806.

However, it was added that the net outflow per 1,000 people decreased from 13.4 in 2022 to 8.9 last year, showing that the degree of population outflow is gradually easing.

Considering this population change trend, the city is strengthening support by life cycle to help young people settle down and ease the burden of marriage and childbirth.

Specifically, we plan to promote policies such as payment of wedding congratulatory funds to young people, full support of college student tuition, support for young people to settle in fishing villages, support for maternal health care expenses, and monthly rent support for young people.

In addition, we plan to actively utilize local extinction response funds, various administrative and financial special provisions, and central government support projects to expand the living population by taking advantage of our strengths as a tourism, culture, fisheries, and marine city.

Mayor Kang Seok-ju said, "This designation as a population decline area is a result that seriously shows the population problem facing Tongyeong," and added, "We will use it as a new turning point to restore regional vitality by linking government support and city policies."

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced on this day that it would newly incorporate three cities, including Tongyeong-si, Geumjeong-gu in Busan, and Dongducheon-si in Gyeonggi-do, and re-designate 92 areas across the country as areas with population decline.

A population decline area is a system that designates areas at risk of local extinction due to population decline and connects them with local extinction response funds, administrative and financial special provisions, and central government support projects to help regions proactively respond to population decline and local extinction.