S. Korea's population mobility falls for 3rd month in May

SEOUL, June 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's population mobility fell for the third straight month amid a rapidly aging population, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of those who moved residence inside and outside the same province or city retreated 4.9 percent over the year to 473,000 in May after sliding 2.6 percent in March and 10.7 percent in April, according to Statistics Korea.

The population mobility had roughly been on the decline for the past years amid the population fall and the rapidly aging population.

A prolonged downturn in the real estate market also contributed to the lower population movement.

The population mobility rate, which measures the number of people relocating to fresh homes for every 100 people, slipped 0.6 percentage points to 10.9 percent in May compared to the same month of last year.

The capital Seoul and the second-biggest city of Busan posted a net outflow of 3,657 and 1,014 residents each, but the Gyeonggi province surrounding Seoul and the western port city of Incheon recorded a net inflow of 3,205 and 3,237 residents, respectively. ■