The number of people who moved out of the Seoul metropolitan area exceeded those who moved into the capital for the first time in four decades, a government report said on Monday, indicating a gradual decentralization of population in the country.

The population of the Seoul metropolitan saw a net outflow of 8,000 residents, Statistics Korea said, posting the first year of population contraction from change of legal residence since the agency started compiling data in 1970.

“We’re seeing a dispersion of the urban population. Industrial development in the Chungcheong, Gangwon and Chungnam areas has accelerated since the early 2000s and created more jobs,” Seo Woon-joo, a director at the agency said.

“The net inflow into the Seoul metropolitan area has been diminishing over the past decade. More people are willing to give life outside of Seoul a try,” she said.

The report also noted that people moved less last year than in the previous year, perhaps with the economic downturn.

A total of 8.12 million changed their legal residence in 2011, down 99,000 or 1.2 percent from a year before. The mobility rate, representing the number who changed their address per 100 people, dropped to the lowest level since 1975 to 16.2 percent, the report said.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)