KREI: Rural workers topped 5.4 million in 2023, accounting for 21.3% of national workforce

About 1.39 million businesses registered in rural areas; startup rate of 12.9%, just 1.1 percentage points below urban rate

Manufacturing leads rural employment; average of 470,000 people moved to rural areas annually over 12 years

This image is not related to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
This image is not related to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

Despite ongoing population decline and aging, more than one in five business jobs nationwide is generated in rural South Korea, a new report shows. The share of newly opened businesses among all rural establishments stood at 12.9% — just 1.1 percentage points behind the urban rate.

According to a report titled "Strategies and Tasks for Rural Policy Transformation," published Wednesday by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI), more than 5.4 million people — 21.3% of all business employees nationwide — worked in rural eup and myeon areas in 2023. Rural businesses accounted for 22.2% of all businesses across the country.

Both figures edged up from 2020. The rural share of all businesses rose 0.8 percentage points, from 21.4% in 2020 to 22.2% in 2023, while the rural share of employees inched up 0.1 percentage points, from 21.2% to 21.3% over the same period.

Key indicators for the rural economy and employment, as provided by KREI, are as follows:

Rural share of all businesses (2023): 22.2% Rural share of all business employees (2023): 21.3% Rural business employees: more than 5.4 million Registered rural businesses: about 1.39 million (1,386,245) Rural startup rate: 12.9% Urban startup rate: 14.0% Rural agri-food convergence industry workers: 706,337 Rural core tourism industry workers: 408,256 Annual average migrants to rural areas (2013–2024): 470,045

Rural employment is not concentrated in agriculture alone. By number of workers in 2023, the top three industries in rural areas were manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and accommodation and food services, in that order. In cities, wholesale and retail trade led, followed by accommodation and food services, then manufacturing. KREI said the rural industrial economy relies most heavily on manufacturing.

Industries drawing on agricultural and rural resources also employ a significant number of workers. The rural agri-food convergence sector — classified under the agriculture, forestry, livestock and food industry framework — employed 706,337 people in 2023. The rural core tourism industry, classified under the tourism industry framework, employed 408,256 people.

New business formation continued as well. Of the approximately 1.39 million businesses registered in rural areas in 2023, 12.9% were startups established that year — 1.1 percentage points below the urban startup rate of 14.0%. Compared with 2020, the rural startup rate rose 1.3 percentage points, while the urban rate rose 1.7 percentage points.

Among jobs created by newly established rural businesses, accommodation and food services generated the most, at 72,520 positions, followed by wholesale and retail trade at 58,801 and manufacturing at 54,497. Together, these three sectors accounted for 53.1% of all new hires by rural startups in 2023. Transportation and warehousing, electricity and gas supply, and construction each also produced more than 20,000 new jobs.

The flow of people into rural areas has held steady at an annual average in the 400,000s. Between 2013 and 2024, an average of 470,045 people per year relocated to rural areas to take up farming, fishing or village life. However, recent inflows have declined. The combined total of returnee farmers, fishing households and rural migrants fell from 515,434 in 2021 to 438,012 in 2022 and 413,773 in 2023, before recovering to 433,499 last year.

KREI assessed that the rural economy is diversifying as a broader employment base — spanning secondary and tertiary industries beyond agriculture — takes shape. To sustain the flow of people into rural areas, the institute recommended that industrial development, business revitalization and job expansion go hand in hand, so that new arrivals can continue to earn a living there.


adastra@heraldcorp.com