Abstract
The aim of this study is to suggest the quantitative standard of a marginal village. For the purpose, the study selected 43 villages with the population of 50 or less, the classification of a marginal village in accordance with advanced research and 47 villages with the population over 50 in Buyeo-gun region. The common reason of occurrence of a marginal village suggested by advanced research is a characteristic of a village or decline and extinction of a village rather than a simple index of population or aging rate. Therefore, the study assumed that decline of functions of the village would be caused by decline a function of communities consisting of the villagers. The study then assumed that the relatively low or 0 number or rate of participants would result in community functions. The study conducted t-test on basis of population and aging rate and an analysis to find the range with relatively large differences in the number of communities, participants and the rate of the participants, etc. The result showed that the community function began to decline when the population was less than 60~70 and the aging rate over 75%~85%. As the decline of functions of communities began in population of 70, the critical point was met when the population was 40 or less. With population of 40 or less, the young and the old group communities became extinct or showed rapid decrease in the number of participants. The study assumed that decline of functions of a village, a reason of occurrence of a marginal village would be decline of functions of communities, but there was no further analysis on decline or extinction of a village with population of 40 or less. There shall be further studies about whether a village of population of 40 or less is led to decline of a function or extinction of village communities.
