Background of Research
The number of Korean urban people who returned to rural areas increased 37 times from 880 households in 2001 to 32,424 households in 2013. The phenomenon of urban-to-rural migration is not only closely related with the agriculture sector and rural areas but also with changes in national social trends. Nevertheless, previous studies on the phenomenon have considered it as individuals’ behavioral features. Few studies have examined it in connection with the society’s changes.
This research aims at macroscopically identifying factors for urban people’s return to rural areas and its effects on the rural society and economy in relation to Korea’s social changes and predicting the direction of its future development.
The study drew research tasks and its analytic frame through literature review; and examined the current state of urban-to-rural migration, its factors, and its impacts on the rural society through statistical analysis, surveys, and in-depth investigations.

Research Results
As a frame that explains factors of the return to rural regions, we set structural factors, urban areas’ push factors, rural areas’ pull factors, policy factors, and factors of individual preference responding to these forementioned factors.
When the number of city people who migrated to rural areas was compared to the economic growth rate and the unemployment rate as structural factors, the figure was inversely proportional to the economic growth rate.
The recent increase in the number of return to rural areas is closely related to baby boomers getting into retirement age. Young people’s movement to rural regions is considered to reflect eco-generation’s population structure and their behavioral preference towards life.
According to this study's analysis, the phenomenon of urban-to-rural migration is affected more by rural areas’ pull factors than by urban areas’ push factors. Policy factors influence the decision concerning where-to-return rather than whether-to-return.
We examined the phenomenon’s impacts on the rural society and economy in the following aspects: changes in population, the regional agriculture sector, impacts on local economy and the community. The return migration to rural areas seems to mitigate rural areas’ decreasing population trend.
Urban-to-rural migration pulls down the average age of national farming population, and people who move to rural areas have potential to become new leaders of local agriculture, ultimately leading to regional advancement.
These people’s demand for agricultural land can be interpreted to cause increases in farmland prices. It is a factor that leads urban people’s return to remote regions with relatively low land prices.
In conclusion, we looked at the development of the phenomenon of the return migration to rural areas on the demand side and the supply side (rural areas’ acceptivity). Given Korean society’s current circumstances, it is more probable that the demand for urban-to-rural migration would increase. However, a rise in the cost of rural migration due to recent trends in rural areas (including increasing urban-to-rural migration) and uncertainty about the agriculture sector's future can become suppressing factors for urbanites' return to rural areas.

Researchers: Park Si-hyun, Choi Yong-woog
Research Period: 2014. 1. ~ 2014. 10.
E-mail Address: shpark@krei.re.kr