South Korea plans to establish a new ministry to address the issue of the country’s record-low birth rate, which stood at 0.72 children per woman in 2023, well below the 2.1 needed to sustain the population, Reuters reports.
The world’s lowest birth rate means that in the long term, the country will face a turbulent wave of elderly people. The government has allocated funds, among other measures, for subsidies, nanny services, and support for assisted reproduction.
South Korea’s birth rate plummeted to a record low last year, according to official data, despite pouring billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability. The country has one of the world’s longest life expectancies and the lowest birth rate, a combination that poses a daunting demographic challenge.
According to preliminary data from Korea’s statistics office in February, South Korea’s fertility rate – the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime – fell to 0.72 in 2023, nearly eight percent lower than in 2022.
According to experts’ estimates, this is significantly below the 2.1 children needed to sustain the current population of 51 million, which at such rates will nearly halve by the year 2100.
