South Korea's urban areas expanded by 72 square kilometers in 2010 compared to the year before as more people moved to cities from rural communities, a government report showed Tuesday.

   The report by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs showed the country's cities occupied 17,492 square kilometers last year, 16.6 percent of the country's total land area.

   The number of people living in urban areas increased by 750,000 people vis-a-vis 2009 to 45.93 million, with the overall urbanization rate reaching 90.9 percent as of late 2010 from 90.8 percent a year earlier, it said.

   South Korea's total urban area has been growing steadily from 1960 onwards when the urbanization rate stood at just 39.1 percent. In the last five years, urban areas have been growing by an average of 90.5 square kilometers annually.

   The ministry, meanwhile, said that the rise in urban areas has caused land set aside for agriculture and natural conservation to decrease in 2010 compared to the previous year.

Source: Yonhap News (July 26, 2011)