PRO-NATALIST POLICIES<\/p>\n
The uptick in births has tracked a similar, though less even, rise in marriages going back to mid-2022, official figures show.<\/p>\n
Experts said the trend may reflect more positive attitudes towards family among younger South Koreans.<\/p>\n
But they differed on what was driving the shift and how important it was compared with factors such as pro-natalist policies.<\/p>\n
Hong Sok-chul, an economics professor at Seoul National University (SNU), said the programmes had been “quite effective”.<\/p>\n
“Rather than trying to force marriage or childbirth … the government focused on lowering the direct and indirect costs to make these choices more rational,” he said.<\/p>\n
Kim Woo-jin, 33, said vouchers she received from the government had “played a significant role in alleviating the financial burden” of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing.<\/p>\n
She cited a payment of two million won (US$1,400) when her daughter was born last year, a one-million-won voucher to cover maternity fees, and subsidies for transport and post-natal care.<\/p>\n
“I believe that the significant improvements (in state support) … played a role in the recent rebound” in births, the office worker said.<\/p>\n
MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING<\/p>\n
South Korea also pays parents a one-million-won monthly allowance during the baby’s first year, while other policies include low-interest loans for young families buying homes, expanded parental leave and subsidised fertility treatment.<\/p>\n
Some companies also hand out large bonuses to staff who have children.<\/p>\n
For some couples, though, the incentives have made little difference.<\/p>\n
Kim Su-jin, the freelancer, said government support “in reality … provides little substantial assistance”.<\/p>\n
“The issue is not merely a matter of a few million won,” she told AFP, citing broader social ills like exorbitant tutoring fees, widespread school bullying and the threat of job losses due to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Demographer Lee Sang-lim, also of SNU, said it was “very difficult” to conclude that the latest government policies had caused the upturn in births, noting that several initiatives only began in early 2024 – less than nine months before the increase became apparent.<\/p>\n
He said that more than a decade of policies to help boost fertility may have played a role in improving the environment for childbirth and child-rearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PRO-NATALIST POLICIES The uptick in births has tracked a similar, though less even, rise in marriages going back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8782,31,8783,33],"class_list":["post-11536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-birth-rate","tag-korea","tag-population","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}