SEOUL – The number of deaths in South Korea has exceeded the number of babies born in the country for the first time last year. It called for stronger policies and incentives to improve demographic growth and sustain the economy.
Births in 2020 fell by 10.65% compared to the previous year to 275,815, while deaths rose by 3.1% to 307,764, according to the South Korean Ministry of Interior and Security. South Korea’s population currently stands at 51,839,408.
“This decline in population is an extremely dire situation,” Jung Choun-sook, a women’s rights activist and member of the South Korean National Assembly, told ABC News.
South Korea has the lowest fertility rate of any nation in the world, 0.84, which means that less than one child is born to a mother. The global average, according to the United Nations Population Fund, is about 2.4 children.
“In South Korean society, marriages and births cost a considerable amount of money. Financial burdens are therefore a major factor,” Cho Youngtae, a professor of demography at the University of Seoul in the South Korean capital, told ABC News said. “The economic situation has worsened as a result of the pandemic. The future is therefore even more uncertain, which means fewer marriages.”
Marriages registered nationwide last year fell by 9% compared to the previous year, according to Korean statistics, indicating that birth rates this year are likely to fall more sharply than 2020.
Analysts such as Eun Ki-Soo, head of the Korean Population Association, said that the reasons why South Korean society records such bleak birth rates are complex, but that it basically boils down to the financial uncertainties facing young South Koreans in the future. facing. .
“Economic growth has weakened, there are fewer jobs, poverty has increased and the shortage of housing. All of these things have generally affected the population in recent decades to shrink,” he told ABC News.
In fact, 70.9% of young men over the age of 19 in South Korea rely on their parents to provide housing, according to a 2020 survey conducted by online recruitment company SaraminHR. Only 29.9% of newlyweds were able to afford their first marriage last year, and according to Statistics Korea’s information, many are supported by their parents. Real estate prices have risen to the highest record, and it is estimated it will take more than 15 years to buy an average home, even if one saves his or her entire income, according to the Korea Real Estate Board forecast last year.
“The fact that marriage and childbirth are detrimental to promotion or staff members at work keeps me from forming a family,” said Kim Dongkyu, a plastic surgeon in his early thirties.
Even if a couple is getting married, planning a family is a far-fetched dream in modern South Korea, where people are known to spend frugally on children’s education. According to the South Korean Ministry of Education, more than $ 19 billion was spent on private education in 2019, in addition to regular school classes. Three out of four students in primary, middle and high schools received some form of extracurricular private tuition. On average, parents spend about $ 300 a month on a child’s private tutorials.
In an effort to curb declining marriage and birth rates, the South Korean government has implemented a range of policies and initiatives, including cash incentives. As of 2022, every pregnant woman will receive 1 million won ($ 919.5), and then 2 million won ($ 1,839.1) at birth. And if both parents opt for childcare leave within the first year of birth, each parent will receive three million won ($ 2,758.6) for three months. Benefits are extended to families with more children, with subsidies offered for university education.
But Eunjin Shin, a 33-year-old banker in Seoul, told ABC News that “no one I know makes the decision to have children based on government policies.” She gave birth to her second child last year.
“My district gave me $ 275 for my second child, even though nothing was for my firstborn,” Shin said. “Monthly subsidies barely cover the cost of diapers, and we pay a babysitter extra out of a separate bag.”
For a young, working mother of two like Kim Hojeong, these cash bonuses barely cover what she pays her babysitter – about $ 2,000 a month.
“Government grants help with the purchase of hundreds of baby products, but they will never solve the low birth rate,” Hojeong told ABC News. “What we want is an environment with flexible working hours and affordable public child care that you can trust.”
ABC News’s Hakyung Kate Lee, Aaron Kwon and Haley HyunJoo Yang contributed to this report.