Overpopulation in Seoul and the Establishment of Internal Migration Statistics under the Park Chung-hee Regime

This paper analyzes the transformation of demographic statistical systems under the Park Chung-hee regime, linking these changes to internal migration issues as a driving factor. It argues that the government's establishment of internal migration statistics during the 1960-70s was a response to the influx of rural migrants into Seoul.<br/> In the 1960s and 1970s, government population policies were fundamentally positioned as tools for economic development. The Economic Planning Board oversaw the nation’s statistical operations, with demographic statistics forming a key part. In the late 1960s, a severe drought triggered a massive rural-to- urban migration. Although the root cause of Seoul’s population surge lay in regional imbalance, the Park regime framed it as a national security threat.<br/>From 1968 onward, growing concerns over national security created a perceived need to manage the capital’s concentrated population. This necessitated an understanding of the scale and patterns of population movements, leading to two key initiatives: (1) the revision of the Resident Registration Act and (2) the establishment of internal migration statistics.<br/> The revision of the Resident Registration Act between 1968 and 1975 illustrates how political power, under the perception of a security crisis, viewed and responded to population mobility. These revisions aimed to use administrative mechanisms to monitor residents’ changes in address and facilitate wartime mobilization.<br/> Previously, changes in residence were sampled only every five years via the national census. Starting in 1970, the government was able to carry out internal migration statistics surveys based on the revised Resident Registration Act. The government began monthly collections of in- and out-migration data through local administrative units, compiling these figures in a bottom-up fashion. These statistics were then used as official data for policies concerning population concentration and dispersion in the 1970s and began to serve the broader social function of raising awareness about population density issues.<br/> Thus, the phenomena of population concentration and the legal revisions to the Resident Registration Act in the 1960s, and the implementation of internal migration statistics in the 1970s serve as important indicators for assessing how the Park regime politicized social phenomena and responded through administrative and statistical means.