Why S. Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world | DW News
South Korea’s president says he wants to set up a new ministry to help boost a record low birth rate calling it a National Emergency it’s already the lowest in the world and plunged another 8% last year despite State spending on familyfriendly policies experts predict if it doesn’t improve South Korea’s population will hav by the end of the century many Korean women complain they’re forced to Bear the burdens of child care left with having to choose between a career or family let’s speak to young men Kim she is editorial director of Korea Pro a us information service based in Soul what about yourself do you have kids or plans to have any I don’t have plans for it but I’m not particularly against it uh when I speak to most of my friends in my in the same age early 30s they also feel the same some are married and they want to have kids uh for me or someone like me uh people consider having children uh something of a thing of a far away future when their career is more settled or they have better um better plans for housings and also other things to consider like for myself I wouldn’t want to um really raise my child in a super competitive South Korean environment unless the society changes understand where you’re coming from tell us uh more about some of the the the more interesting State incentives uh to boost the birth rate there have been a lot of different types of government incentives but I would say that many of them are targeting wrong things um a lot of the state of incentives focused on maybe providing better uh paternity leave uh maternity leave for people who are working these days it’s very different from ages ago when women used to many women used to not work after being married it’s usually both uh husband and wife they they work and so the government instead of mly was on trying to tackle that but it also has to really handle the issue of low marriage rate as well in early 30s and late 20s these days um and people are really um not looking at marriage and child care a child birth as something of a thing that they would do in their late 20s so the society changed a lot uh but the government in saides not did not really tackle that part of the changing social norms when it comes to Parenthood itself and marriage so I think that’s why despite many of the state incentives it’s not really working um but there have been other incentives such as a little bit of an increased um support for things like egg freezing for women to retain the possibility of having children even later in life if current trends continue it’s predicted South Korea’s population could have by 2100 what happens to the country then a lot of problems that we are expecting I’m just going to mention two things one is military South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea and we are on conscription basis and if the demographic Cliff hits it will be very difficult to maintain the current level of number of forces in South Korea uh serving uh service members secondly there would be a big pension issue uh and the gener the younger generation will basically be responsible to pay more for the pension and also they will it’s not only the low birth rate also the Aging Society so uh there would be a lower ratio of people who can participate in economic activities in the future and they will have increased responsibility to take care of the elderly okay plotting a future with or without children young men Kim great talking to you
South Korea’s president says he wants to set up a new ministry to help boost a record-low birth rate, calling it a national emergency.
It’s already the lowest in the world and it plunged another eight percent last year, despite state spending on family-friendly policies.
Experts predict if it doesn’t improve, South Korea’s population will halve by the end of the century.
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#southkorea #birthrate #baby
28 comments
South Koreans work 3 out of 2 days
Anyone who has delved into this issue deeper by now has realized that it’s NOT that people don’t want to have kids.
It’s mostly a matter of unplanned childlessness, people either feel their material circumstances are prohibitive, that they are forced to build an extremely solid career first or they simply do not find the right partner or find them too late.
This, to me, sounds like it’s a matter of radically changing the tax code, corporate culture and incentives and sharing information regarding fertility to young people.
This is far from impossible, the matter is… will these elderly countries want to divert substantial amounts of wealth into doing that?
S.Korea’s collapse might eventually convince them to but it does not look likely.
Ppl are too judgmental.
East Asian countries should embrace immigrants from other Asian counties just like Biden said it was the immigration that makes the USA great.
Weird is N.Korea, they don't even have enough food to feed the children but they don't have such crisis. People still get married and have kids. The more prosperity a country gets, the more people will only think about themselves only. Why would I sacrifice my career, my future, my money for kids? People in poor countries "i would sacrifice myself, my future, my life for my kids"
I don't think the situation for women is much better in many western countries. Born in 1982 spoke to a lot of them. They just believed that feminism has worked for them. And couples usually start with the best intentions but then mostly due to economic reasons they revert back to old gender roles.
Why media is taking it negatively when population decline..
not a big deal, there're north Korean
Oh wow. Lower than Japan now huh?
North Korea is okay with birth rate, so don't worry – 2-3 generation and Kim family will reunion with South Korea, who will have lack of people.
No nation has ever turned this around
Indians and Chinese … should learn from South Koreans (Y)
It's time to get a job in South Korea and help all the young women.
Inappropriate his first question! It wasn't a personal interview. Please be more professional!
The tax burden would be outrageous forget pension. They better believe women women would be forced to joint the military to protect the benefits they enjoy. the way south korea does rent and home purchasing needs to change. Plus the people who marry or have children with koreans, speed the process up for them to be citizens or residents.
I have ex military friends who went back to south korea to marry girlfriend's or live locally with their wife and its been difficult to get paperwork done and their from the states, so imagine for everyone else!
No modern woman wants that lifestyle nowadays. It's not just in South Korea, it's everywhere.
The cost of housing is why people don’t have kids. Simple as that
People who have children nowadays are either doing very good financially or are completely delusional.
At this point it’s impossible for Korea to pull out of that nosedive. They’re too far gone.
They decided that no one will be as successful as BTS and gave up trying to make someone like them
When a couple must work all day, who will raise the children ? Only the rich can do it. Humanity is degenerating. Only people who inherited money will be reproducing in the future. And these are not very inclined to hard work manual labor, to support the infrastructure. We are not doing very well as a species, worldwide.
I would say government should chip in and do something because Younger generation tired to a great extent now 🙄 its ok live alone than making family just come out of competition live fr yourself at the old age no one will protect you than kids …rent , high purchasing powerr military services unemployment hard really hard ..but baby is necessary
Saving only helps … government should birnv more women empowerment schems and plans to ease their living …
Too much competition and higher cost of living, you got the work/study college only to be jobless then expected to raise a family and living in a rental that cost half of your salary but in other countries such as philippines you have people having kids up to 10 but living in slums then those kids either straight up die of malnutrition or just get kidnapped and have their organs stolen, i think id rather have not kids and be financially secured
Very unprofessional for the interviewer to ask the guest about her own family plans. This surprised me, I wouldn’t have expected a DW presenter to do that.
Traditional human relationship just got broken when a young female gets tons of DMs from desperate “potential sex offenders”.
It is better for current 30+ to arrange and invest for time after their retirement than to be ready for being burden on future youngsters.
Nothing will change until everyone feels the suffering.
The Korean problem is not the quality of life in numbers, but the qualitative cost you have to pay to get that quality of life. The society is so hierarchical and competitive, leading to an enormous amount of stress, which young people do not want to inherit to their children. In a way, a tragedy of compressed high growth.