SEOUL, May 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's population mobility logged a double-digit growth last month due to increased move into new apartments in springtime, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of those who moved residence to a different district totaled 533,000 in April, up 17.1 percent from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
It marked the highest April figure in three years as the move to new apartments went up in springtime.
The population mobility rate, which gauges the number of those moving to a different district for every 100 people, gained 1.9 percentage points to 12.7 percent in the cited month.
Despite the on-year growth last month, population mobility had been on the decline from 655,000 in February to 563,000 in March and 533,000 in April amid a housing market slump and population aging.
High interest rates led to a sluggish real estate market, which weakened demand for relocating to new homes.
The country's central bank had left its key rate unchanged at 3.50 percent since January last year after hiking it by 3.0 percentage points in phases for the past one and a half years. ■
