Objectives The purposes of this study were to analyze the trends in regional education disparities as depicted in news articles over a 20-year period and predict regional population characteristics, comparing them with depopulated areas. Methods A total of 14,263 news articled on regional education disparities from 2004 to 2023 were analyzed to discern reporting trends. Utilizing topic modeling, key terms and major topics were extracted from the articles. Time series analysis was employed to forecast population chracteristic for the top 15 depopulated regions. Results First, the number of news articles on region educaional gap significantly increased in 2006 and 2010, followed by a decreasing trend from 2011 to 2019, but surged again from 2020 onwards. Relative lack of interest was observed in early childhood and elementary education. Second, 11 topics, along with 50 keywords identified in the articles, were categorized into two overarching themes; the realities of regional education disparities and strategies for addressing them. Third, populations in the top 15 depopulated regions highlighted in the articles are predicted to decline sharply over the next five years. Conclusions This study structurally examined a long-term societal issue of regional education disparities over 20 years, providing foundational data for policy-making and practical implementation in the education sector by viewing education disparities from the perspective of population decline.
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Kim et al. (2024) studied this question.
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