South Korea’s demographic time bomb ticks with world’s lowest birth rate and super-aging
Last updated: February 28, 2024, 14:12 IST
A woman holds her child against the backdrop of N Seoul Tower, commonly known as Namsan Tower, in Seoul, South Korea on October 2, 2018. (Reuters file photo)
South Korea’s fertility rate is set to hit a record low of 0.72 in 2023, leading to a demographic crisis. In view of the decline in population, political parties have resolved to take measures to promote childbearing.
Fertility rates in South Korea continued to decline as women, concerned about their careers and the costs of child-rearing, decided to delay childbearing or not have children.
The average number of children expected during a woman’s reproductive life in the country has fallen to a record low of 0.72 in 2022 from 0.78. Yonhap The news agency reported this news on Wednesday, citing data from Statistics Korea. This rate is lower than the 2.1 per woman required for a stable population and well behind the rate of 1.24 in 2015 when there were less concerns about issues such as housing and education costs.
The country is the only member country of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) where the total fertility rate had fallen below 1 by 2021. This figure belies the billions of dollars the country has spent to try to reverse the trend. Due to which the population declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2023. The Asian powerhouse’s demographic crisis has become the top risk to economic growth and social welfare systems, with the country’s population of 51 million on track to halve by the end of this century. , News agency reuters informed of.
South Korea had previously estimated that its fertility rate was likely to fall to 0.68 in 2024. The capital Seoul, which has the country’s highest housing costs, had the lowest fertility rate last year, at 0.55. Ahead of next month’s elections, South Korea’s major political parties pledged more public housing and easier credit to encourage childbearing, aimed at allaying fears of “national extinction” due to falling fertility rates. . Being married is seen as a prerequisite for having children in South Korea, reports show, but marriages are also declining in the country.
“There are people who don’t marry, but we wonder why married couples choose not to have children, and my understanding is that addressing that is part of our policies (to boost the birth rate). The focus is going to be on,” a Statistics Korea official told a briefing. The parties’ focus on population in their election issues reflects growing concern as spending of more than US$270 billion in areas such as childcare subsidies since 2006 has failed to reverse record low fertility rates. South Korea is not alone in the region struggling with a rapidly aging population. Japan said on Tuesday that the number of babies born in 2023 has fallen for the eighth consecutive year to a new record low. Japan’s fertility rate hit a record low of 1.26 in 2022, while China recorded 1.09, also a record low.
(with agency input)
