Vacationers soak up a view of Seoul, crammed with flats, from Mount Nam, Sept. 25. Yonhap
53% of GDP, 59% of jobs concentrated in better Seoul space
By Yi Whan-woo
Korea is essentially the most reliant on its capital metropolis for producing gross home product (GDP) and creating jobs among the many seven rich nations within the so-called 30-50 membership, in accordance with information, Monday.
The membership consists of OECD member nations whose per capita revenue exceeds $30,000 and whose inhabitants surpasses 50 million.
The six others are the USA, Japan, Germany, the UK, France and Italy.
Knowledge launched by Rep. Kwon Younger-jin of the ruling Folks Energy Get together confirmed that Seoul and its surrounding areas accounted for 52.5 % of Korea’s complete GDP in 2022 and 58.5 % of the whole variety of jobs in the identical 12 months.
All information regarding the seven nations is from 2022 and was compiled by the Nationwide Meeting Analysis Service.
The contribution of Korea’s capital metropolis to the nationwide economic system was 10 occasions greater than that of the U.S., as Washington accounted for five.1 % of the nation’s GDP and 4.9 % of all jobs nationwide.
The GDP dependency ratio on the capital metropolis was 24.3 % in Japan, 31.3 % in France, 23.1 % within the U.Okay., 10.9 % in Italy, and 4.6 % in Germany.
The job market in Korea was additionally extra closely centered across the capital metropolis.
In comparison with Korea’s 58.8 %, 30.8 % of jobs have been concentrated within the capital metropolis in Japan, adopted by France at 23.5 %, the U.Okay. at 14.4 %, Italy at 10 % and Germany at 4.6 %.
The discovering comes as extra individuals throughout Korea, notably youthful people, flock to Seoul in quest of jobs and a greater high quality of life.
For example, 50.5 % of the nation’s complete inhabitants was concentrated in Seoul and the encircling areas of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, in accordance with the information.
This fee surpassed Japan’s 29.5 %, France’s 18.2 %, the U.Okay.’s 13.1 %, Italy’s 9.7 %, Germany’s 4.5 % and the U.S.’ 4.7 %.
“It’s not shocking {that a} capital is often essentially the most populous metropolis in a rustic,” Rep. Kwon stated. “Nonetheless, Korea’s regional contribution to the nationwide economic system is way too disproportionate,” he added.
The lawmaker urged the federal government to implement measures to maneuver away from Seoul-centered progress, warning that “rural areas will perish, and the nation’s economic system will in the end be jeopardized.”
