How South Korea raised its birth rate: love bingo, parental support and more | News about demographics

For the first time after nine years, the South Korean birth rate has increaseda long -term trend reversal, which made him refuse to record the lowest.

The fertility rate in the country has dropped eight consecutive years, making it the only member of the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) with a rate below 1.

The character’s character denotes the number of children born to every woman in the population in their lives. Experts say that maintenance of the population at current levels is required by a birth rate of 2.1.

Even neighboring Japan, which has long been considered to have a particularly older population, has a birth rate greater than that in South Korea – in 1.2.

Does the last recorded increase in birth rate in South Korea mean a turnaround in the future of the country or is it too early to celebrate it?

What happened to the birth rate in South Korea?

According to the National Statistics Agency, Korea Statistics, the birth rate (often called fertility rate) increased to 0.75 in 2024 after hitting a historic low of 0.72 in the previous year.

After posting a rate of 1,24 in 2015, Eight consecutive years of falling birth rate They resulted in South Korea to have the smallest birth rate in the world. The rates are different throughout the country, and the birth rate remains particularly low – only 0.58 percent – in the capital in Seoul, which lives more than 18 percent of the population in the country.

The latest national report on national demographics, published last Wednesday, showed that last year there were more than 240,000 registered births across the country.

This is a little over 235,000 born in the previous year, but it remains significantly below 600,000 to 700,000 born recorded in every year in the 1990s. Furthermore, 120,000 more people died last year than they were born.

The surprise of the increase in the number of marriages in South Korea may be the cause of a new increase in birth rates, experts say. There were 14.9 percent more marriages in 2024. Compared to the previous year, the biggest jump since the record began in 1970.

What effect did the birth rate on the population in South Korea?

The national population remained basically a few years. Last year, it decreased to just over 51.2 percent, after a peak of 51.83 in 2020, as the number of deaths increased by 1.7 percent compared to the previous year.

People in the 50s make up a high proportion of population, with 17 percent, while children under the age of 10 are still making the smallest share, 6.13 percent.

And the number of children aged 14 and a working-year (ages 15 to 64) fell last year. And as people over the age of 65 have increased by 5.41 percent to make more than 20 percent of the population now, South Korea is now considered a super older society.

Why are more South Koreans get married?

Korean statistics officers have told the briefing news this week that “a trend of growth in marriages after a pandemic Coid-19”, demographic shifts and changes in social behavior explain the rise.

“There has been a change in social value, with more positive views of marriage and childbirth,” said Park Hyun-Jung, a clerk in Korea statistics, briefing.

“It is difficult to measure how much each factor has contributed to the rise of new births, but they themselves had an impact on each other.”

However, it seems that the main driver of the increase in birth and marriage is an increase in the number of people in the early 30s that are considered a key age group.

It consists of people born between 1991 and 1995, the group consists of children Baby Boomers second generation born between 1964 and 1974, which are considered to be the largest unique generation in the country, which makes up 18.6 percent of the total population.

Why has the birth rate of South Korea in recent years?

According to officers in the town of Seoul, high cost of living, imbalance between work and life and difficulty in providing quality child care are some of Main reasons That people say they delay or reject the idea of ​​marriage and fully raise children.

In a country where youth unemployment rates have worsened in recent years, the number of economically active young people has also been constantly reduced – a trend that has continued in recent decades.

Despite the very high level of education among young people, more and more companies require “specifications” – or a collection of qualifications, certificates and other achievements to improve competitiveness – and work experience, whose last is difficult to gain and complete with the demanding South Korean education system.

Even when someone is employed, the country has one of the longest weeks of work among members of the OECD average of almost 36 hours per week. As a result, experts say, to achieve a satisfactory balance between work and life It got harder.

What steps did the Government take it to do so?

The South Korean government spent more than 360 trillion won ($ 270 billion) on programs such as subsidies for children since 2006, and from 2022. The parents received a financial payment of two million won (1,510 USD) after the birth of a child. As of this year, the City of Seul also plans to give one million won ($ 685) with newly minted couples who register their marriage in the capital.

As of this year, new regulations will give fathers to 20 days of paid leave of paternity.

Before his Impeacment In December, after declaring an urgent ratio right in the country, President Yoon Suk Yeol also declared the “national demographic crisis” and a plan to create a new ministry dedicated to resolving low birth rates. Measures include increasing parental leave fees, flexible working hours, extending age limits for reduced working hours for parents of young children and providing subsidies for employers who employ temporary substitutes for employees on parental leave.

Yoon also committed to increasing support for children’s care and expand programs after school in elementary schools to facilitate the burden for work parents.

South Korea also tried programs aimed at reviving communities with the decline in fertility rate. In the town of Pyeongtaek, for example, a few hours of driving south of Seoul, newly built apartments across the city and schemes to create new jobs, including the new Samsung Electronics campus, have attracted more families in the region. It is now one of two cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants that held a fertility rate greater than 1.

In 2022, Seoul performed 6.7 trillions ($ 4.58 billion) “Birth Project” to encourage more marriages and births of children in the capital. This included a reduction in living costs for the brides by providing residential residence and increasing the number of daily centers.

The government also turned to imaginative schemes. Officers in Seoul, for example, organize going out for single people in a city who find it difficult to find a time or space to get to know other single people.

Last Valentine’s Metropolitan Government in Seoul organized an event called “Romance, Art Night”, pairing 50 men and 50 women in the town in the city. The event was complemented by dinner, champagne, “bingo theme of love” and an exercise in which 100 participants saw each other in the eyes for 10 seconds. After drawing nearly 2400 people, the event ended up on a high leg because half of the participants said they had found a partner.

Will the birth rate continue to grow?

Probably not. Choenjuo, an associate professor of sociology at the National University of Jeonbuk, has reduced the importance of a recent defeat in the country’s birth rate.

In addition to being a rate that is still 0.75, far below 2.1 children who were supposed to maintain the population of the country at their current level, he believes that the birth rate will fall again in the near future.

“The number of births in the 1990s was hovering about 600,000 to 700,000 born a year, but that number just clapped when we enter in the 2000s,” Cho told Al Jazeera.

The country experienced a drop in birth to 300,000 a year in 2017 and entered 200,000 in 2020.

“So even if the birth rate is somewhat maintained, the birth number will inevitably be reduced significantly,” Cho said. “We have to prepare for various social changes and problems that will occur with this steep population fall.”

As an example, Cho emphasized that the Government must prepare for the demands of national pension in a country that has already reached the level of great years.

The government should also focus on the way the education system will have to adapt to the decline in the needs of schools and teachers in the country and how regional policy will have to change in rural areas facing the risk of extinction.

The population of South Korea, which has been hovering around 50 million marks for some time, is expected to reduce to 36.22 million to 2072, according to the last projection of Korea statistics.

Cho also noted that the South Korean society has not changed its views on marriage or childbirth, while partnerships out of marriage have made large parts of the birth rate in Western societies since the end of the 20th century.

“But the most important thing is the fact that the percentage of people in the South Korean society who are able to plan or imagine their life in a stable way so low,” Cho said. “People don’t get married or not pregnant because the government tells them.”

Instead, she said, society has to examine why people do not want to get married or raise children.

“How we allow the younger generation to imagine his future, to look forward to that, to plan.”