A Study on the Improvement Directions based on the Analysis of Population Growth and Deterioration according to the Local Extension Reaction Fund Expenditure

Two years have passed since the local extension reaction Fund was introduced and the budget was allocated to overcome the problem of continuous population decline. The government expects that the annual budget of 1 trillion won, focusing on 89 population-decreasing areas, will alleviate the serious population decline problem, especially in non-capital areas. Therefore, this study analyzed based on statistical data on the extent to which the fund performed in the population-decreasing area. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the population decline in the population-decreasing area was significantly alleviated and the net outflow of young people decreased in size compared to before the input of the fund. Nevertheless, it was also confirmed that there is a limit to responding to the population decline in South Korea with this fund, considering the fact that the population has turned to a decline in areas that are not designated as a population-decreasing area or the scale of net outflow of young people has expanded. In the end, in order to overcome the problem of rapid population decline in South Korea, there are certain limitations in establishing investment plans and discovering projects at the level of basic local governments, so it would be desirable to approach it through regional planning and project discovery based on inter-regional cooperation. In addition, in terms of the financial system, it is necessary to overcome the population crisis by efficient financial input to enable the linkage of this fund project with the Special Account for Balanced National Development or other budget projects.