Trend Megatrend 3: Demographic change and transition to a shrinking society

Summary

The third megatrend frames Korea's rapid fall in births and fast ageing as a transition to a shrinking society. Population decline is expected to combine low growth, labour market change, the hollowing out of provinces and regional economic decline into one compound shift. The committee chose to treat the population problem not as one social problem among many but as the source of a national transition, and renamed an earlier label accordingly. The report stresses that shrinking numbers mean more than a smaller workforce, bringing lower social vitality, weaker innovation capacity and a steep rise in fiscal burdens. It argues that the answer is not symptomatic efforts to stop decline but a redesign of social systems that guarantees quality of life in every region even as the population falls. The megatrend contains three trends covering the post-growth economy, adaptation to decline and the restructuring of national space.