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Written by Jihoon Lee and Cynthia Kim
Seoul, February 28 (Reuters) – South Korea’s birth rate, already among the lowest in the world, continued to decline dramatically in 2023 as women, concerned about career advancement and the financial costs of raising children, chose to delay or not have children at all.
The average number of children Korean women expect to have during their reproductive years has fallen to an all-time low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022, data from the Korea Statistics Bureau showed on Wednesday.
Since 2018, South Korea is the only Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with interest rates below 1, despite spending billions of dollars to try to reverse trends that have led to population decline. It will be the fourth consecutive year in 2023.
“I don’t know about other places, but you can’t get a job at a Korean company just by working two or three days a week. I hope it’s not too late to try next year or the year after,” Kwak said. Told.
South Korea’s population crisis poses the biggest risk to economic growth and social welfare systems, with the country’s population of 51 million expected to be halved by the end of the century.
South Korea previously predicted that the birth rate would likely fall further to 0.68 in 2024. The capital Seoul, which has the highest housing costs in the country, had the lowest birthrate last year at 0.55.
Ahead of the April general election, South Korea’s major political parties I swore more With the aim of allaying concerns about the “annihilation of the nation” due to a decline in the birth rate, the government will promote public housing and loosening of loans to encourage childbirth.
Marriage is considered a prerequisite for having children in South Korea, but the number of marriages in the country is also decreasing.
“Some people don’t get married, but we are thinking about why couples choose not to have children, and we understand that addressing that will be the focus of policy (to improve fertility). ” Officials from the Korea Statistics Bureau said at a press conference, without providing details.
Each party’s focus on population in its election proposals comes as more than 360 trillion won ($270 billion) spent on areas such as childcare subsidies since 2006 has failed to reverse record low birthrates. This reflects a heightened sense of caution after the incident.
South Korea is not the only country in the region struggling with a rapidly aging population. Neighboring Japan on Tuesday Babies born in 2023 This is the 8th consecutive year of decline and a new record low.
Japan’s birth rate hits record low 1.26 In 2022, it was 1.09, which was also the lowest on record.
(1 dollar = 1,331.2100 won)
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee and Cynthia Kim; Editing by Ed Davis and Jamie Freed)
((jihoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))
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