Benjamin Michener examines the potential demographic impact of a peaceful near-term reunification of the Korean peninsula utilizing a recently available North Korean census. He first discusses South Korea’s demographic problems involving low fertility rates, gender imbalance, and aging population, then predicts the positive and negative consequences that reunification may bring to the Korean demographics.

Read “Demographic Impact of Korean Reunification: Costs and Consequences for the North and the South ^[1],” by Benjamin Michener.

Benjamin Michener is a second-year M.A. student at SAIS, concentrating in International Economics and South Asia. He is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College where he earned a B.A. in International Affairs. Prior to SAIS, he taught secondary school and worked in management consulting.

Back to the 2011 SAIS U.S.-Korea Yearbook ^[2].