Uneven Distribution of Socio-economic Status and Housing Outcomes in Depopulating Towns of Rural Korea

Abstract

In the wake of demographic cliff, this research is a longitudinal study that examines socio-economic status and housing outcomes of households in depopulating towns of Jeolla and Gyeonngbuk Provinces, and figures out factors affecting their residential assessment. After 1,213 households were selected from two waves of Korea Welfare Panel Study, the statistical analysis revealed that most of the households were elderly couples headed by men aged over 70 with lower level of educational attainment, and owned a small-sized single-family-home with 3 bedrooms. Not surprisingly, the number of single elderly women between old-old and oldest-old age groups sharply increased, especially in Gyeonngbuk Province. where a sizable number of either substandard housing or houses with structural problems were identified, lowering housing satisfaction. While a vast majority of households suffered from digital isolation, a growing of number of households relied on social services, particularly cash transfer such as social security and medicaid. Further, the regression analysis indicated that overall satisfaction with rural settlement was largely influenced by satisfaction with housing and residential environment in its entirety. Thus, this research implies that since depopulating towns are mainly small and physically islolated, digital inclusion helps elderly residents to stay connected and adequately get in-home services.