11,617 People Moved to Rural Areas Last Year... Impact of 'Basic Income Pilot Project'

Return-to-Farming Population Increases by 8.5% in 2025, While Return-to-Rural Residents Decline by 2.2%

Rural Basic Income Pilot Regions See a 37.8% Surge in Return-to-Rural Residents

Last year, a total of 11,617 people relocated from urban areas to rural communities. In particular, seven regions selected in October of last year for the Rural Basic Income pilot project saw an average increase of 37.8% in new rural residents.

According to the "2025 Statistics on Return-to-Farming and Return-to-Rural Residents" jointly released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the number of households returning to farming reached 8,735, totaling 11,617 people. This represents an increase of 6.0% and 8.5%, respectively, compared to the previous year. "Return-to-farming" refers to people who move from cities to rural areas to engage in agriculture, while "return-to-rural" refers to those who live in rural areas but pursue non-agricultural occupations.

The Asia Business Daily Database

Despite the overall decline in domestic population movement, the number of people returning to farming (household members) reached 11,617, increasing across all age groups and marking an 8.5% rise from the previous year (10,710 in 2024). Notably, there was a substantial increase in return-to-farming among those aged 70 and above, as well as among women, both recording their highest shares ever. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs attributed this to the full-scale retirement of the second baby boomer generation (those born between 1964 and 1974, totaling 9.48 million as of 2025), and to the mechanization and automation of agricultural work.

There has been a growing trend in both succession-type return-to-farming, driven by agricultural succession in aging rural communities, and diversified-income return-to-farming, where people engage in both agriculture and other occupations. The proportion of mixed households rose from 12.9% in 2015 to 33.1% in 2025. The share of return-to-farming residents with multiple occupations also expanded from 22.8% to 32.6% over the same period.

The top five regions with the most return-to-farming residents were Goheung County, South Jeolla Province (153 people); Sinan County, South Jeolla Province and Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province (138 people each); Sangju City, North Gyeongsang Province (125 people); and Naju City, South Jeolla Province (121 people). The most common previous area of residence was Gyeonggi Province at 21.0%, followed by Seoul (14.2%) and Gwangju (8.2%). Return-to-farming residents from the Seoul metropolitan area (Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi) accounted for 40.5% (3,700 people).

As the total number of people moving within Korea declined by 2.6% compared to 2024, the number of return-to-rural households and residents decreased across all age groups except for those aged 60 and over. Nevertheless, the trend of younger people (under 30) moving to rural areas continued, with those in their 30s making up the largest proportion of heads of return-to-rural households at 23.2%.

The most common reason for returning to rural areas was "job opportunities" at 32.1%, followed by housing (26.1%) and family (25.4%). The reasons varied by age group: for those in their 40s and younger, jobs were the top reason, while for those in their 50s and above, housing was the primary factor.

The top five regions with the highest number of return-to-rural residents were Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province (23,790 people); Namyangju City (14,980 people); Yongin City (14,623 people); Asan City, South Chungcheong Province (13,896 people); and Cheongju City, North Chungcheong Province (13,790 people). Notably, in the seven regions selected in October of last year for the Rural Basic Income pilot project, return-to-rural residents increased by an average of 37.8%.

Among the 2.22 million people who moved to rural areas within the past five years, 15,631 (0.7%) started farming for the first time in 2025. Of those who returned to farming or rural areas within the past five years, 1,969 return-to-farming residents (3.4% of the total 59,000) and 184,000 return-to-rural residents (8.3% of the total 2.22 million) returned to the city.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, "It is now important not only to encourage urban residents to move into agriculture and rural communities, but also to create conditions that allow return-to-farming and return-to-rural residents to continue living in these communities." The official added, "To this end, we plan to expand the availability of diverse information on rural jobs, vacant houses, farmland, and more, and to provide customized information to individuals through the integrated return-to-farming and return-to-rural platform 'Green Road.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.