Rural communities in South Korea face extinction as ‘silver tsunami’ threat looms large
It’s lunch break at Seoksan Elementary School and the entire student body has taken to the vast playground for a game of football – with just three players on each side.
“We don’t really have enough people and there’s no goalkeeper, but it’s still fun,” said Lee Jung-bin, playing on the same side as his sole fourth grade classmate, Kim Dong-won.
Lee is one of only six students – all boys aged seven to 11 – attending the school in the southern South Korean rural county of Gunwi, which once boasted 700 pupils.
I’m worried this county might disappear from the map once we die
Many classrooms are padlocked and rusty goalposts and a basketball hoop stand forlornly at the corners of the playground, while an old banner welcoming queries “for admissions and transfers” flutters on a nearby fence.
Seoksan is one of many “mini-schools” struggling to stay open in rural communities that have been decimated by a dramatic demographic shift in South Korea which now has one of the world’s lowest birth rates.
By 2030, a quarter of all South Koreans will be over 65 years old, and the overall population is expected to peak at around 52 million the same year before entering a period of steady decline.
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