Fears over declining birth rates in South Korea have led President Yoon Suk Yeol to announce plans to create a government ministry to address what has been labelled a “national emergency.”
South Korea has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, with women expected to have 0.78 children, or 78 children for every 100 women.
Factors including the cost of housing, an intensive work culture, and childcare pressures have been held responsible. The government ministry is looking at ways to ease the burden that often forces couples to postpone or put off having children altogether.
Megan Huchko, an obstetrician-gynaecologist and director of the Center for Global Reproductive Health at Duke University, said: “The concern with the prolonged very low fertility rate is the ageing population, who may not have sufficient resources to care for them as the active labour force shrinks.”
According to Huchko, there are several factors contributing to the declining rates of births, with a challenging employment culture deterring people from getting married young in a country where babies are rarely born out of wedlock.
South Korea is not alone in experiencing falling fertility rates; the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany have also seen a downward shift in recent years.
Earlier this month, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that there were just 591,072 births in England and Wales in 2023 – the lowest number since 1977.
Greg Ceely, head of population health monitoring at the ONS, said total fertility rates had been declining since 2010 but were particularly notable in those at the beginning of their working lives, looking to forge a career.
He said: “The decline in fertility rates has been the most dramatic in the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups.”
Likewise, the United States’ fertility rates dropped by 2% to 1.62 babies per woman in 2023.
However, South Korea currently has the lowest fertility rate in the world, which is causing panic among politicians who are conscious of the potential impact if not addressed.
South Korea does not have a long history of pronatalist policies, with many parts of the country not having any pronatalist policies until the turn of the century, according to Wookun Kim, an assistant professor of economics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
According to the Korea Times, the government intends to “expand childbirth incentives, paternity leave benefits and housing welfare programs for families with newborns, as part of broader efforts, to boost the country’s falling birth rate.”
Falling birth rates and increased life expectancy threaten economic hardship in the coming years, as a smaller workforce is required to pay for more retirees.
