The number of students in Seoul has fallen into the 700,000 range for the first time, as the impact of low birth rates leaves classrooms empty.
According to the "2026 Academic Year Class Organization Results for Kindergartens, Elementary, Middle, High, Special and Other Schools" (as of March 10) released by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Sunday, the total number of students in Seoul this year stood at 782,104. That is down 28,304, or 3.5%, from 810,408 last year.
It is the first time the number of students in Seoul has been recorded in the 700,000 range.
Compared with a decade ago, the decline is even more striking. According to data from the Korean Educational Statistics Service, the number of students in Seoul exceeded 1 million at 1,074,499 in 2016, then fell below the 1 million mark in 2018 with 993,552, and dropped below 900,000 in 2022 with 880,370.
It continued to decline each year afterward, reaching 855,309 in 2023, 835,084 in 2024 and 810,408 in 2025, before finally sinking into the 700,000 range this year. That amounts to roughly 300,000 students disappearing over 10 years.
By school level, student numbers declined across every stage from kindergarten to high school. The rate of decline was highest at elementary schools (323,802) at 4.9%, followed by middle schools (193,896) at 2.9%, high schools (197,888) at 2.6%, and kindergartens (58,683) at 1.2%.
The number of schools and classes also fell. The total number of schools in Seoul this year was 2,092, down 15 from 2,107 the previous year. Kindergartens fell by 16 to 724, while high schools rose by one to 319 with the establishment of Heukseok High School. The total number of classes was 37,294, down 803 classes, or 2.1%, from the previous year.
However, the decline in the number of classes (2.1%) was smaller than the decline in the total number of students (3.5%). As a result of the city education office intentionally maintaining the number of classes, the average number of students per class was 23.0, down 0.3 from 23.3 the previous year. Classroom density has eased slightly.
The city education office said, "We expect this to establish a stable educational foundation in response to the era of declining school-age population and to contribute to creating a student-tailored educational environment."
