Korea’s population is expected to decline to 37 million by 2070, from 52 million in 2022, with the median age rising from 45 to 62. In the context of these significant demographic shifts, Korea is considering a “compact-and-connected” strategy anchored in transit-oriented development (TOD) to rebalance development across the country. This strategy seeks to ensure access to high quality services for people of all ages while also fostering sustainable, inclusive urban growth.
This report is the outcome of the project “Linking Compact-Urban and Regional Development in the Face of Demographic Change in Korea,” supported by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT), and forms part of the OECD’s long-standing collaboration with Korea to advance knowledge on regional development policy, well-being, and environmental sustainability. The report provides recommendations to assist Korea in developing resilient, well-connected, and sustainable urban and regional strategies that effectively respond to demographic shifts, but it is also relevant to other OECD countries facing similar challenges. The report uses rich and fine-grained population and service data to highlight differences in population concentration trends and access to services in Korea relative to other OECD countries. It also takes a close look at Korea’s policies towards balanced regional development and suggests avenues for policy direction based on comparisons with similar policies implemented in other OECD countries. Based on this analysis, the report proposes a series of recommendations to support the implementation of a TOD-based compact-and-connected strategy in Korea.
The report was produced by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the Programme of Work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). It was led and coordinated by Ana Isabel Moreno Monroy, Head of the Territorial Analysis and Statistics Unit, under the supervision of Rüdiger Ahrend, Head of the Economic Analysis, Data and Statistics Division. The report was drafted by Oscar Huerta Melchor (Chapters 1, 3 and 4), Policy Analyst at the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division and Bernhard Nöbauer (Chapter 2), Economist at the Economic Analysis, Data and Statistics Division in the CFE. It benefitted from support and contributions by Rang Lee, Senior Policy Analyst. Claire Hoffman and Mauricio Salazar Lozada (data scientists) provided statistical support. Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director, Tadashi Matsumoto, Head of the National Urban Policy and Climate Resilience Unit, and Soo-Jin Kim, Deputy Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division in the CFE, provided comments on the draft.
The report benefitted from feedback by Hyeona Lim, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation and Trade Division and Yujeong Kwon, Director of the International Cooperation and Trade Division in MOLIT, as well as Jee Eun Kim, Deputy Director of the External Affairs Division in the Presidential Committee for Decentralisation and Balanced Development of Korea. The draft also benefited from comments by the delegates of the Working Party on Territorial Indicators and the Regional Development Policy Committee. The OECD gratefully acknowledges Mapbox for making their data available through the Development Data Partnership (datapartnership.org), a collaboration between international organisations and private sector companies to facilitate the efficient and responsible use of third-party data in international development. Jack Waters in the CFE managed the publication process.