Visualizing spatial disparities in population aging in the Seoul Metropolitan Area

This paper explores the spatial differences in population aging within the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea). Korea is among the most rapidly growing countries in the world in terms of its increasing elderly population. The speed of population aging and demographic decline has been a central issue in the field of urban and regional planning because it is linked to spatial inequalities in socio-economic development. Considering the present importance of understanding population aging, this paper aims to empirically visualize spatial disparities using the old-age dependency ratio, which is measured by the ratio of the elderly population to the working-age population (age 15–64 years old) of one hundred people. For the empirical period examined between 2000 and 2018, I mapped the changing temporal and spatial patterns of the old-age dependency ratio within SMA using spatial analytic tools and cartograms. The visualization reveals that the old-age dependency ratio is relatively high in sparsely-populated rural areas, which underscores the need for further discussion on how to sustainably provide local public services and manage the pressing issue of population extinction in those areas.