South Korea is the sixth most heavily urbanized country in Asia mainly due to concentration of jobs and social infrastructure in cities, a recent report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said.
The report which was released here yesterday checked 48 Asian-Pacific countries in 2009 showed six countries with more than 80 per cent of their population living in urban areas, with the figure for South Korea hitting 81.5 per cent.
The country's high percentage is mainly attributed to concentration of employment opportunities, educational and social infrastructures in cities such as Seoul and a lack of incentives to attract people to rural areas. Seoul is home to more than one-fifth of the country's 49 million people.
Countries such as Palau, Brunei Darussalam and the Marshall Islands had urbanization rates of over 70 per cent, while the percentage of the total population living in cities in Japan and Taiwan stood at 66.5 percent and 59.1 per cent each. This placed the two countries in 11th and 16th place among the countries checked.
China's urbanization rate stood at 46.6 per cent last year, coming in 22nd, with India coming in 34th with just 29.4 per cent of its population living in urban areas, the report said.
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