SOUL In South Korea, companies are experimenting to see if money can boost baby making. Construction company Booyoung offers to its employees a bonus of around 67,000 euros for each child.
The amount sounds big, but big is also the problem.
South Koreans no longer want children. Fewer children are born than anywhere else in the world, and the trend is still only downward.
The incentive fee is much more generous than the research director of Väestöliitto Anna Rotkirch has proposed to raise the birth rate in Finland.
Bold initiatives are needed, because South Korea’s birth rate is still much further down the spiral than Finland’s.
In this story, we tell you why so few children are born in South Korea and how Koreans are trying to improve the situation.
This year, the birth rate in South Korea has fallen to a record low. Researchers predict that the so-called total fertility rate will drop to 0.68 in 2024. It means that on average women have only 0.68 children in their lifetime.
With such a low number of children, the size of the next generation is only a third of the previous one. After all, children are almost always born in Finland twice as much that is, an average of 1.26 for each woman.
Students want money and not children
In South Korea, the decline in the birth rate has been dramatic compared to international standards. At the same time, the country has urbanized rapidly, and the level of education and living standards have risen sharply.
The changes are related.
Children are no longer a labor force in the countryside, and in the cities they have become an expense for their parents. The more children, the more housing and education costs.
asked young women in Seoul why fewer and fewer are having children. Lack of money was repeated in many answers.
The place of study for these young adults is the private Buddhist Dongguk University in the middle of the big city of Seoul. There, students get good food for a competitive working life.
In the youngest generation of working-age people (25–34-year-olds) Education level in South Korea is the highest in the world: More than two-thirds have a university degree.
According to the OECD organization however, a high level of education does not bring South Koreans as much salary increase as on average in OECD countries. And jobs are not as permanent as before.
Then plan a family in it. There is not a single baby carriage to be seen on the university campus.
When the campus was preparing for Buddha’s birthday in the spring, students hung their wishes on paper lanterns around the university’s central square.
Students’ wishes boil down to money and happiness, and they don’t need children for either.
The students remind us that childlessness is not only about a lack of money.
South Korea is a conservative country, where the benefits of the welfare state are practically not at the level of Finland. Reconciling work and family life is especially difficult for women.
– Although the law guarantees parental leave, in practice it is frowned upon or recommended to quit, says the student interviewed by Lee Yea-in.
Employees are often required to devote themselves completely to work, which also means long working hours. There would be no time for children.
Lee says she doesn’t plan to have children.
– Not for financial or social reasons, but because I enjoy my work and what I do. Having a child would take time away from work and other things that I consider important, Lee says.
In Lee’s opinion, the state’s complaints about the low birth rate are pointless to the extent that the state can only regulate the benefits it provides.
According to Lee, the problem lies elsewhere: According to him, people just don’t want children anymore. Marriages are becoming less and less and at an even older age – and no longer because of children.
Korean women are no longer amused by the state’s calls to have children.
Pew Research Center has charted a radical change in attitude among Koreans. More than half of women over 55 believe that giving birth to children is women’s duty to society. Only eight percent of women under 35 think this way.
Researcher: “Everyone is in shock”
The low birth rate has been a shock to the South Korean authorities. Researcher at Kangnam University Park Yeong-ran tells that the birth rate is much lower than predicted.
– Everyone is in shock, and we don’t know what to do about it, Park admits.
However, concern about the dwindling population is not a new development. According to Park, the government has been raising the issue for 25 years.
20 years ago, a special law was created, the purpose of which was to raise the birth rate and, on the other hand, to prepare for the consequences of a low birth rate, i.e. an aging society.
First, day care for small children was improved, because fewer and fewer women remained housewives. Later, working life has been reformed in various ways.
– Nothing has worked, says Park.
That’s why, according to Park, those who give birth nowadays are given either money or other valuable benefits, such as free hospital visits.
As population loss varies by region, some cities offer their own additional benefits to those who give birth.
– They can give free housing or cash to those who give birth, Park says.
In the city of Seongnam near Seoul, the authorities have even arranged with tax funds dating event to speed up mating and childbearing of singles.
Park has also felt the challenges of women firsthand.
– I have three children, and for 30 years I have constantly considered leaving my job, because raising children and pursuing a career at the same time is so difficult, says Park.
Having children is no longer considered profitable
An economist looks at the low birth rate from the point of view of profits and costs.
– People compare the benefits of having children with the costs they incur, says the professor of economics at Seoul National University Hong Sok-chul In an interview with .
According to Hong, more and more people consider the costs greater than the benefits, and the most significant cost is the lost money: With children, career development suffers and incomes are reduced.
In economics, we talk about opportunity costs. Since there is limited time, having children would mean compromising on developing one’s professional skills and competitiveness. The position on the labor market would weaken compared to those without children.
Pursuing one’s own interest, however, leads to an unsustainable situation for society.
– The population is shrinking very quickly. At the same time, the relative share of the elderly is growing very quickly, warns Hong.
The population of East Asia is shrinking rapidly
Low birth rate in East Asia is not only a problem in South Korea. Also in Japan the total fertility rate has fallen below one.
Behind the Korean Iron Curtain in North Korea, the country’s dictator Kim Jong-un tear sheet last year when talking about low birth rates.
in China the long-standing one-child policy became the country’s custom, and the birth rate has remained low.
In South Korea, population development is such a big concern that even a small positive development becomes news.
Children were born in July clearly more than a year earlier. The reason is considered to be that a year earlier the corona pandemic started to subside, and then more marriages were concluded than usual.