Rural migration households up 7.4%, headcount up 8%; those under 40 exceed 20,000
South Jeolla Province has cemented its standing as South Korea's top destination for people returning to rural life, ranking first nationwide in both return-to-farming and return-to-fishing households even as the overall number of rural migration households across the country declined.
South Jeolla analyzed the "2025 Return-to-Farming, Fishing and Rural Living Statistics," jointly released by the Ministry of Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The province recorded a total of 31,546 households and 38,564 individuals who moved to farming, fishing or rural communities last year — a 7.5 percent increase in households from the previous year.
In the return-to-farming category, South Jeolla logged 1,633 households (2,068 individuals), up 7.7 percent from the year before, accounting for 18.7 percent of all return-to-farming households nationwide. The figure placed the province at the top of the national rankings for the first time in five years, since 2020.
Return-to-fishing households surged 19.6 percent to 232 households (303 individuals), with nearly four in 10 return-to-fishing households nationwide choosing South Jeolla — keeping the province at No. 1 in that category as well.
The most notable gains came in rural migration. While the national count of rural migration households edged down 0.5 percent from the previous year, South Jeolla's tally rose 7.4 percent to 29,681 households, with the headcount climbing about 8 percent.
Those under 40 accounted for 59 percent of rural migrants — 21,204 people — and are identified as the primary driver of the increase.
Officials attributed the results to a range of settlement-improvement policies, including a pilot basic-income program for rural residents, a heavily subsidized housing initiative offering units at 10,000 won ($7) a month, and a home-renovation support project — all of which delivered tangible results on the ground.
A layered outreach strategy targeting prospective migrants complemented those efforts, encompassing counseling and education sessions, a "Try Living in South Jeolla" program, and startup support initiatives — producing a combined effect that reinforced the policy gains.
"It is encouraging that inflows of people returning to farming, fishing and rural life in South Jeolla have grown despite the nationwide decline in rural migration households," said Yun Yeon-hwa, director of the province's Population, Youth and Immigration Bureau. "We will work to strengthen a settlement support system that links housing, employment, community and income assistance, and to build a South Jeolla-Gwangju integrated special city that people want to come to and stay in."
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