The South Korean conundrum: an ageing society desperate for babies
by Louis T March, Mercator:
South Korea is the global birth dearth poster child. A demographic basket case. Every year it claims the record for the world’s lowest fertility rate, now 0.78. Statistics Korea projects a rate of 0.65 by 2025. The capital Seoul, home to one in five South Koreans, rings in at 0.59.
When South Korea was founded in 1948, the population was just over 20 million. It peaked in 2020 at over 51 million, declining since. Projections have South Korea shrinking more than 50 percent by century’s end.
But numbers cannot describe the struggles of an ageing society. The government has offered generous incentives for families to have children, but so far no luck.
Government planning
As post-World War II prosperity enveloped East Asia, South Korea’s government saw expanding population as a hindrance to economic growth. In 1962, a family planning agency was established to promote birth control. Contraceptives were distributed. Abortion was legalised in 1973. Favourable housing loans and other incentives were provided to parents who got sterilised. In 1983, the government suspended maternal health insurance for women with three or more children and abolished education tax deductions for folks with two or more young’uns.
Today, the government has reversed course and is doing its utmost to encourage larger families.
In February, the City of Seoul unveiled an ambitious annual $1.35 billion (1.8 trillion won) “birth encouragement” project. Some particulars:
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