Review of ‘Special city’ Issues and Population Standards in the Age of population Decline

A system was established to designate Large cities with a population of more than one million among local governments(Si, Gun, Gu) as “Special Si” for decentralization and balanced regional development. “Special Si” referred a Large city with a population of at least one million persons. However, due to the severe population decline in non-metropolitan areas, Changwon City, the only “Special Si” in the non-metropolitan area, is expected to fall below one million people, raising concerns that it will be excluded from the “Special Si” status. Currently, Article 198 of the Local Autonomy Act and Article 118 of the Enforcement Decree of the Local Autonomy Act stipulate that the standard for a “Special Si” is a population of one million, which may lead to an imbalance in the number of “Special Si” in the metropolitan are a, while non-metropolitan areas have no “Special Si”. Therefore, this study aims to raise the issue that the population thre shold for “Special Si” is likely to deepen regional imbalances and that a review of the population threshold for “Special Si” is necessary for true decentralization and regional balance. Accordingly, based on demographic changes and expert opinion surveys, this study proposes a review and revision of the population criteria for special cases in Article 198 of the Local Autonomy Act and Enforcement Decree 118 of the same Act.