Seoul, Oct 30 (IANS): South Korea saw a higher transient population in population-reduced areas in the second quarter, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of a so-called living population, which includes registered residents, registered foreigners and transient people in 89 depopulated areas across the country, totalled 28,477,000 in June, according to Statistics Korea, Xinhua reported.

It was up by 14 per cent compared to the previous quarter. The transient population refers to people who stay more than three hours a day for at least one day per month in areas other than their registered home.

The result was based on data of local and foreign residents from the interior and justice ministries along with data from mobile operators and credit card companies.

The number of registered residents stood almost unchanged at 4,902,000 in June from three months ago as growing foreign residents offset falling domestic residents.

The transient population jumped to 23,575,000 in June from 20,077,000 in March in the population-reduced areas.

The transient people were 4.8 times larger than registered local and foreign residents in June, higher than 4.1 times recorded three months earlier.

The per-capita plastic card usage by the transient in the areas averaged 115,000 won (83 U.S. dollars) in June, taking up 43.2 per cent of the total card usage in the areas and contributing significantly to the local economy, the statistical agency noted.