South Korea's fertility rate, already the lowest in the world, has continued its dramatic decline in 2023. The average number of babies expected by a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to a record low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022, data from Statistics Korea showed on Wednesday.
This figure is well below the rate of 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain a stable population and far behind the rate of 1.24 in 2015, when concerns about issues such as the cost of housing and education They were minors.
Since 2018, South Korea is the only member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with a rate below 1, despite the billions of euros spent by the country to try to reverse the trend, which has led to population decline for a fourth consecutive year in 2023.
South Korea also has the worst gender pay gap in the OECD, with Korean women bringing home around two-thirds less income than men.
"Women are generally unable to leverage their experience to advance further in their workplaces because they are often... the sole caregivers of children and often need to re-enter the workforce after extended leaves" said Jung Jae-hoon, a professor at Seoul Women's University.
"Having a baby is on my list, but there are opportunities for promotion and I don't want to be overlooked," Gwak Tae-hee, 34, a junior manager at a Korean dairy manufacturer who has been married, told Reuters. three years.
Gwak explains that she considered starting in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment last year to try to have a baby, but ended up volunteering for work projects to improve her career prospects.
"I don't know about other places, but working two or three days a week doesn't get you anywhere in Korean companies. I hope it's not too late when I try it next year or the year after," Gwak said.
South Korea's demographic crisis has become the main risk to economic growth and the social welfare system, and the country's population of 51 million is on track to be halved by the end of this century.
South Korea has previously projected that its fertility rate will likely fall to 0.68 in 2024. The capital, Seoul, which has the highest housing costs in the country, had the lowest fertility rate, at 0.55, last year.
Ahead of April elections, South Korea's main political parties promised more public housing and easier loans to boost birth rates, aiming to allay fears of a "national extinction" as fertility rates plummet. .
Being married is considered a prerequisite for having children in South Korea, but marriages are also declining. "There are people who don't get married, but we think about why married couples choose not to have babies, and my understanding is that addressing that part will be the focus of our policies (to increase the birth rate)," said a statistics official from Korea in a briefing, without giving further details.
The parties' focus on the population in their election plans reflects growing alarm after spending of more than 360 trillion won (nearly 250 billion euros) on areas such as childcare subsidies since 2006 has failed to reverse low fertility rates.
South Korea is not alone in the region struggling with a rapidly aging population. Neighboring Japan said Tuesday that the number of babies born in 2023 fell for the eighth straight 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.
