Where Are the People, Really?
Introducing South Korea’s Living Population Data
I recently watched a video expressing international concern over South Korea’s declining population.
It was surprisingly heartfelt — almost as if others were worrying on our behalf, just as much as we do ourselves. Thank you for the care.
To be honest, this is uncharted territory for all of us. No country has really figured out how to respond to such demographic shifts, and neither have we.
But I thought this might be a good opportunity to share something Korea is experimenting with:
a different way of counting people — not just where they officially live, but where they actually are.
A New Way to Count: Living Population
In addition to traditional resident data, Statistics Korea has begun publishing figures based on what’s called the "Living Population" (생활인구) — a more realistic measure of how many people are in a given area at any given time.
This metric includes:
Registered Population: People whose legal address is in the area (including Korean nationals and registered foreigners).
Visitor Population: People who stay in the area for more than 3 hours per day on at least one day per month, for reasons like work, school, shopping, or tourism.
Together, these make up the Living Population — essentially, the total number of people actively present and using the area.
What the Numbers Show
Here’s a recent example from Q3 2024.
As the chart below shows, one particular district had a registered population of about 4,900 people, but its living population swelled to over 33,000 during the summer — nearly 6 times higher than the official figure.
To better show the relationship between different types of population, I combined two types of visualization:
The filled area represents the Visitor Population, and
The line on top shows the total Living Population, which includes both registered and visitor populations.
Because the Living Population is the sum of the Registered and Visitor populations, this chart style helps us see not just how many people are in the area, but also how much of that is due to visitors.
By visualizing both together, you can intuitively grasp:
How much the area depends on inflows of people, and
How dynamic the population is across time.
Looking Forward
Yes, the numbers are concerning.
But with better data and a deeper understanding of how people actually live, move, and gather,
we might just find new ways to adapt — and maybe even thrive.