By So says South Korean Health & Welfare Minister Jeon Jae-hee:
Korea’s birthrate fell to 1.19 in 2007. This is less than half the global average. It is the lowest among the 30 members of the advanced economies’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
South Korea’s Health-Welfare Minister Jeon Jae-hee campaigns for more babies with the slogan “Nothing is more patriotic than giving birth to a child.’’ The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs worries that the birthrate could even plunge below 1.0 this year as a result of the recession (which makes couples become more militantly against getting pregnant).
“What this would lead to, if left to continue in the years ahead, is terrifying indeed,” said The Korea Times in its editorial of Friday February 27. “Labor productivity would drastically deteriorate due to a rapidly aging workforce, which in turn would sharply reduce consumption, investment and savings, destroying the economy beyond repair. In the worst-case scenario, Korea could become a ‘one-to-one society,’’ in which one economically active person has to support one retiree and when the nation’s foundation starts to crumble.”
At last President Lee Myung-bak was seen as finally attending to this grave problem when he instituted a program to give housing purchase benefits and discounts to families with at least three children. But critics wonder how the government would prod the real estate and construction firms to treat large families generously. [The Manila Times]
Yes early signs are that this year the birthrate is only going to plummet further with the sharp decrease in the number of marriages.
My brother in law has two kids and he tells me there is no way he could have another kid simply because of the cost of education. The amount of money he spends on educating his two boys is just incredible to me. If Lee Myung-bak wants to increase the birth rate he needs to do more then just focus on housing, fix education expenses as well.
It is the sad reality. No mistake...
7:47 am on March 2nd, 2009 1
I have another theory on why the birthrate is on the decline……. I have spent 3 years in Korea as an Army officer, 1 year as an exchange student (4years). Every single Korean woman that I befriended or dated in that same time period has had the same views on abortion. If I got pregnant before marriage I will have an abortion. I know my own personal anecdotal evidence does not constitute any sort of fact. What I do know is that for any country to continue to maintain a healthy birthrate many types of births need to be embraced even if it’s in a non-traditional manner. I would really like to know the abortion rates in Korea, I am pretty sure it’s technically illegal but not quite sure about that, but would love to know details.
8:15 am on March 2nd, 2009 2
You can read here about abortions in Korea:
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSSEO35121820080404
I think many of the abortions is driven by the economics of having a child. If raising children was more affordable maybe more women would choose to keep their baby.
2:58 pm on March 2nd, 2009 3
If they stopped aborting girls their problems might be solved. This is still a common practice no matter what Koreans say.
“What color clothes should I buy doctor?”
“Pink!”
4:38 pm on March 2nd, 2009 4
Statisics tell a different story. After peaking at 117 male births per 100 female births in the early ’90s, the ratio has declined steadily to about 107, just above the high end of the normal range of 103-106. My own observations of gender ratios among middle-class and upper middle-class Korean families support this statistic. When I first arrived in Seoul in the early ’90s, most of the Koreans I knew had at least one son in the family. Nearly ten years later I was meeting families whose only child was a daughter.
4:44 pm on March 2nd, 2009 5
Agreed although social stigma is the primary reason why unmarried women get abortions. With more Korean women continuing to work after having children, I would not expect the birth rate to increase. A truly healthy birth rate means not only replacement numbers but also encouraging women to have children when they are ready to be mothers.
5:56 pm on March 2nd, 2009 6
I think it finally dawned on some people in Korea that while it’s nice having a son to carry on the family name, etc. ~ a lot of Korean men are literally going to never be able to find a spouse because of the out of whack male-to-female birthrate…which of course means no grand children….so maybe having girls isn’t such a bad thing.
6:42 pm on March 2nd, 2009 7
Abortion is illegal in Korea and it is also illegal for a medical professional to tell you the sex of your unborn child.
2:11 am on March 3rd, 2009 8
It is not illegal to ask what color clothes to buy for your kid.
I've also seen many, many families with only one or more boys and no girls at all.
They still abort girls in order to have males. My ex girlfriend's sister did it because her and her husband wanted a boy first. Guess what? They ended up having a girl anyway!
How would statistics work in that case?