Abstract

The aged population in Korea, especially in rural areas, has been growing rapidly. The welfare for the rural elderly has become a major concern, however we don't have enough information about that population; we don't even have detailed demographics of it. The present research is aimed at; 1) investigating the tendency and changing geographical distributions of the rural elderly, and 2) introducing GIS(Geographic Information Systems) as a useful tool in analyzing geographical distributions of the aged. The General Census Data from 1960 to 2000 was used to carry out this study. The major findings are; 1) There has been a gradual decrease in the rural population over the past 40 years, but this tendency has slowed down more recently; 2) It was observed that the 'oldest-old' group aged 85 years old and over has actuality increased in rural areas faster than any other age group; 3) The changing patterns of the elderly population were different in metropolitan areas and rural areas. In brief, there are far more aged people, especially of the 'oldest-old' group and females in rural areas than those in urban areas. These population, the 'oldest-old' or females, are the most vulnerable and have the greatest need for social welfare and social services of different kinds.

Keywords

• aged population;
• GIS;
• geographical distribution;
• rural-specific approach;
• welfare for the aged