EN-ICHI Opens Up the Future of Family and Community
South Korea Shaken by the “0.78 Shock”
South Korea's birth rate has hit a new record low, once again becoming the lowest in the world. The South Korean government has invested a large amount of money in measures to address the issue, but there are no signs of improvement. Drastic measures are needed to transform South Korea into a society where people want to have children
- The phenomenon of extremely low birth rates
- Young people hesitant to get married
- Heavy burden of child support
- New measures to combat the declining birthrate
The phenomenon of extremely low birth rates
In February 2023, the Korea National Statistical Office announced that the total fertility rate (the age-specific fertility rate for all women aged 15 to 49, both married and unmarried, equivalent to the number of children a woman will have in her lifetime) for 2022 would be 0.78. The birth rate, which was in the 1970s at around three, fell to below one in 2018 and further dropped below 0.8, demonstrating a continuing rapid decline.
The number of annual births reached 500,000 to 600,000 over 20 years ago, but fell by half to approximately 250,000 last year. Coupled with the aging population, if this trend continues, it is expected that a society in which one young or middle-aged person will have to support two elderly people will emerge.
In the northeastern province of Gangwon, nurseries are being forced to close one after another, and nursing homes are being built in their place.
This phenomenon can truly be called an ultra-low birthrate, and the South Korean media has sounded the alarm, calling it the "0.78 shock." The biggest concerns are the slowdown in growth due to a decline in the productive population and the deterioration of public pension finances in the near future. Other concerns include a further increase in export dependence due to shrinking domestic demand, increasing economic vulnerability to external factors, and a decline in national defense capabilities due to a decline in conscripted military personnel.
According to the US financial giant Goldman Sachs, South Korea's economy began to shrink around 1960, and has presented a grim forecast that by 1975, roughly half a century from now, it will be smaller than the Philippines or Malaysia.
Young people hesitant to get married
Why is the extremely low birthrate continuing to this extent? Broadly speaking, one factor is the increasing number of young people hesitant to get married, and the other is the overwhelming number of couples who, even if they do marry, plan to have only one or, at most, two children.
In response to the "0.78 shock," the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare held an emergency meeting in March with 15 young people in their 20s and 30s to hear their opinions. When unmarried men and women were asked "why they don't marry," they cited "difficulties in asset formation and financing" and "difficulties in securing stable housing." Other reasons cited included resistance to Korea's unique wedding culture, which strongly emphasizes recouping the wedding-related expenses paid by both families through wedding gifts, and the pressure that marriage equates to childbearing. Although not mentioned
at the meeting, the difficulty of finding employment among people in their 20s is also said to be a factor in giving up on marriage. Another
factor contributing to the increasing hesitation among young people about marriage is the rise in women who choose not to marry, known as "non-married women." According to a recent report by the Korea Health and Social Welfare Institute titled "A Paradigm Shift in Changes in Marriage and Childbirth Patterns and Measures to Address Low Birthrates," the single-woman rate (the percentage of women who have never married by the age of 50) is expected to rise from 3.8% in 2015 to 7.1% in 2020 and exceed 10% by 2025. We are fast approaching an era in which one in ten women will be unmarried.
Meanwhile, a private company recently released a public opinion survey of approximately 1,100 adult men and women regarding the trend of "marrying but not having many children," another factor contributing to the declining birthrate. According to the survey, the most common reason for hesitation to have children was "the burden of child-rearing costs," at 66.3%, followed by "concerns about whether the child will grow up to be upright" (28.1%).
Heavy burden of child support
The most burdensome aspect of child-rearing costs for South Koreans is the exorbitant extracurricular tuition fees that begin in kindergarten. According to a recent "2022 Survey on Extracurricular Tuition Fees for Elementary, Middle, and High School Students" compiled by Statistics Korea, extracurricular tuition fees per child/student increased 11% from the previous year to 410,000 won (approximately ¥45,000). Excluding those not taking extracurricular classes, the total reaches approximately 520,000 won (approximately ¥57,000). Both figures are the highest since statistics began being collected in 2007.
Many experts believe that the burden of child-rearing costs is the root cause of the declining birthrate. In South Korea, where Confucian values have long been strongly rooted, the influence of an academically-oriented school education and a credential-first mentality remains strong. Excessive extracurricular tuition aimed at improving academic ability, with the ultimate goal of admission to prestigious universities, has led to many criticizing its harmful effects.
Many parents are selling their homes or applying for educational loans from financial institutions to raise money for their children's extracurricular lessons, and households that have become financially strained as a result are sometimes referred to as "edu-poor," meaning poor due to education.
The South Korean government has spent a total of approximately 280 trillion won (approximately 31 trillion yen) over the past 15 years to combat the declining birthrate, but this has ultimately resulted in failure. In an editorial on this point, the Seoul Shinmun pointed out, "This shows that simply handing out money is ineffective, and we must create a comfortable, attractive country where it is not difficult to have and raise children."
New measures to combat the declining birthrate
At the first meeting of the Presidential Committee on Low Birthrates and an Aging Society held on March 28, 2023, then-President Yoon Seok-yeol, chaired by him since taking office, stated, "The declining birthrate issue is an important national agenda that the government and the private sector must work together to resolve. It is intricately intertwined with social issues such as welfare, education, employment, housing, and taxation, as well as various cultural factors such as women's economic activity." He also stated, "Unless we eliminate a culture of excessive and unnecessary competition, I don't think it will be easy to find a fundamental solution to the declining birthrate issue."
The meeting announced the direction and challenges of the Yoon administration's low birthrate and aging society policy, which consists of four promotion strategies and five core areas. Among these five core areas, the policy included tripling childcare services, conducting surveys and strengthening systems to support work-life balance, expanding support for reduced working hours to prevent women from having their careers cut short, expanding the sale of public housing for newlyweds to address the housing market's housing affordability challenges, and relaxing eligibility requirements for public housing based on the number of children.
As President Yoon said, a fundamental solution will likely require a change in culture and public awareness, but how effective will the current government-led measures to combat the declining birthrate actually be?
(Originally published in the May 2023 issue of EN-ICHI FORUM)
