Population Concentration in an Urban System: Korea 1949-1980

This study focuses on growth and change in the urban system of the Republic of Korea over the past three decades. In an analysis of system-wide and subregional growth trends, with particular emphasis given to the Gini coefficient of population concentration, two stages of development are identified. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the system experienced numerical and spatial expansion, along with growing concentration in the largest centers. Since the late 196Os, the main process has been concentrated in Seoul and in the places immediately below it in the city-size distribution. Spatially, this concentration has taken the form of a core-corridor from Seoul to Busan. In large part, these changes reflect the transformation to an urbanindustrial economy, but they also reflect government policies which have focused heavily on Seoul, but perhaps not heavily enough, on the spatial distribution of other large centers in the urban system.