Spatial Patterns of Population Growth and Social Indicators' Change in Korea : an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to identify regional concentration in terms of population and social indicators such as employment and infrastructure, at a disaggregated level using the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). Through an investigation of the change of Moran-I in 1995-2007, we found two phenomena, dramatic deconcentmtion in 1998, and gradually increasing concentration after 1999 due to the IMF financial crisis and its recovery pace. Analysis of local spatial autocorrelation revealed a concentration of regions with positive population growth in SMA and near-SMA and that with negative population growth in the south of Gangwon. Gyeongbuk and the midst of Jeolla in 2000-2005. The distribution of employment growth follows the spatial patterns of population growth among various social indicators. We can conclude that the concentration of population spread out over SMA and the gap of population between growing regions and declining ones widened after the financial crisis. The gap of in population numbers between growing and declining regions is not expected to be reduced within a short period due to simultaneous employment and population growth and past regulatory policies in SMA cannot achieve population deconcentration.