The schoolyard at Joongni Elementary School in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, stands empty March 4, 2024. The school shut down in 2025 due to a shortage of incoming students. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
With the world’s lowest birthrate, Korea is confronting the widening consequences of population decline, from a steady wave of school closures to demographic shifts that could reshape upcoming local elections.
Over the past five years alone, 153 schools have shuttered nationwide, adding to more than 4,000 that have closed since 1980.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Education, released Tuesday by Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party, elementary schools account for the vast majority of closures. A total of 120 were permanently shut down, compared with 24 middle schools and nine high schools.
As the student population continues to shrink, total enrollment has fallen from 5.32 million in 2021 to 5.01 million in 2025. The decline has been most pronounced in non-metropolitan regions, with South Jeolla and Gangwon provinces reporting the highest number of closures with 26 each.
“Given the declining school-age population, some degree of school mergers and closures may be unavoidable. But once a school is shut down, it is difficult to restore the site to educational use. Decisions must therefore be made with great caution,” Park said, adding that in the long run, more fundamental measures are needed to address the downward population trend.
Korea’s birthrate — the lowest in the world, with the total rate remaining below 0.8 — is also beginning to affect electoral districting ahead of the June 3 local elections.
A recent report by the National Assembly Research Service found that 17 constituencies for metropolitan and provincial council members no longer meet the minimum population threshold required under current redistricting standards.
Under the Constitutional Court guidelines, the population of each constituency within a city or province may vary by up to 50 percent above or below the regional average. But in these 17 cases, the number of residents falls short of half the average for their respective regions.
The affected areas include parts of metropolitan cities of Daegu and Incheon, as well as smaller jurisdictions such as Dongducheon and Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi Province and Okcheon in North Chungcheong Province, among others.
Source: Korea Times News
