SEOUL, March 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's population mobility kept falling for the 26th straight month in February due to the housing market downturn, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of those who changed residence to a different province or city came to 622,000 in February, down 6.3 percent from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
It continued to slide since January 2021, marking the lowest February figure in 29 years since 1994.
The population mobility rate, which gauges the number of people moving to a different region for every 100 people, declined 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier to 15.9 percent in February.
Rapid interest rate hikes led to the housing market slump, which cut the number of those relocating to new homes in different regions.
The number of housing transactions nationwide tumbled 43 percent for two months through January compared to a year earlier. ■