Like Japan and several other countries, South Korea is facing a population crisis due to low birth rates. It's getting worse, the majority of women there think that getting married and having children is not a priority.
As reported, South Korea's demographic crisis is getting worse after the latest data shows the number of babies born last year reached a record low. According to Statistics Korea, 249,000 babies were born in 2022, down 4.4% from 2021, making South Korea the country with the lowest birth rate in the world.
Now, in a recent survey conducted by Park Jeong-min, professor at Seoul National University and published in the Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies, only 4% of unmarried Korean women in their 20s and 30s consider marriage and caring for children important in life. they.
As quoted by us from the Korea Times, of the men, 13% consider it important. More than 53% of women agree that marriage and childbirth are not important in a woman's life, while the percentage of men is lower, 26%.
The decline in the birth rate and fertility of Korean women shows no sign of improvement even though the government has tried to overcome this phenomenon. In the last 16 years, USD 210 billion has been spent on increasing the number of births.
Choi Seul Ki, an expert on population policy at the Korea Development Institute, said the Korean government's policies may be less effective. According to him, forcing young people to marry only makes them more skeptical.
"For the majority of young Koreans, getting married and having children is considered a personal matter, not a social norm to be followed. Instead of asking them to get married right away, the government should create an environment where marriage is an attractive option for the younger generation," he said.
For example, by increasing employment, lowering house prices and closing inequality. Indeed, the younger generation in South Korea is increasingly reluctant to marry as the cost of living necessities is getting higher.