Take a look at news from South Korea.
Yoon Seok yeol announces that South Korea has entered a population crisis state of emergency
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korean President Yoon Seok yeol announced on June 19 that the country has entered a state of population emergency and stated that a nationwide response system will be launched until the issue of low birth rates is resolved.
On the same day, Yin Xiyue presided over the "2024 Low Fertility and Aging Social Committee Meeting" in Banqiao, Gyeonggi Province, and made the above statement. Yin Xiyue served as the chairman of the committee, marking his second time presiding over a meeting since March last year.
On the 9th of last month, Yin Xiyue proposed the establishment of a new "Low Birth Response Planning Department" (temporary name) during her second anniversary press conference. On the same day, he confirmed the name of the department as the "Population Strategy and Planning Department" at the meeting, and stated that the head of the department will be appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister of Social Affairs to formulate medium - and long-term population strategies, covering issues such as low birth rates, aging, and immigration.
Yin Xiyue proposed three key tasks to focus on in order to increase the birth rate, namely achieving balance between work and family, reducing parenting pressure, and solving housing problems. To this end, Yin Xiyue proposed multiple policy ideas, such as improving the parental leave system, increasing the utilization rate of male parental leave, and increasing the distribution of parental subsidies; The country will actively share the parenting pressure borne by families and provide free education and childcare services to children aged 3 to 5 during their tenure; Provide more discounts for families who have children in terms of housing application, loan purchase, and other aspects.
The low birth rate in South Korea has become a national emergency situation
On a global scale, fertility rates in developed countries are declining, but no country is as extreme as South Korea.
Last year, South Korea once again broke its own record, with its already precarious birth rate reaching a new low. According to data released on February 28th this year, the fertility rate in South Korea will further decrease by 8% in 2023, dropping to 0.72. This is unprecedented in the global community (the average birth rate in OECD countries in 2021 was 1.58). To maintain population stability, this number should be 2.1.
At the current rate, the population of South Korea will decrease by half to only 24 million by 2100. In 2022, 249000 babies were born in South Korea. The labor market in South Korea needs to operate normally, requiring at least 500000 babies per year, while South Korea currently only has half of this number. In the next 50 years, the working age population will be reduced by half, the population eligible for compulsory military service will be reduced by 58%, and nearly half of the population will be over 65 years old.
The main reasons for the decline in South Korea's fertility rate are high housing and education costs, as well as gender inequality in the workplace. These factors make young people unwilling to form families.
The gender gap in salary in South Korea is also the largest among OECD member countries. The income brought home by Korean women is approximately two-thirds of the salary of men. Reuters quoted Jung Jae hoon, a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Seoul Women's University in South Korea, as saying, "Women often cannot advance in the workplace based on their own experience because they are often alone in taking care of their children and often need to rejoin the workforce after extended leave.".
As early as 2005, the birth rate of 1.2 shocked South Korea for the first time, prompting the government to realize the seriousness of the problem and begin to address it. The Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy emerged. At present, the committee remains at the helm of national policies.
Despite these efforts, South Korea's aging problem has reached a state of national emergency. This is a very unfavorable sign for the country's economy, pension reserves, and security, to the extent that politicians declare it a "national emergency situation.".
In the past 20 years, successive South Korean governments have invested a large amount of funds on this issue, reaching 379.8 trillion Korean won (286 billion US dollars).
Couples with children will receive a large amount of cash, from monthly subsidies to housing subsidies and free taxis. Hospitalization expenses and even IVF can be reimbursed, but only applicable to married individuals. However, a large number of childcare vouchers and direct subsidies did not produce the expected results.
These economic incentives have not been effective, leading politicians to propose more "creative" solutions, such as hiring nannies from Southeast Asia and paying below the minimum wage, and exempting men from military service if they have three children before the age of 30.