- Title: South Korea's fertility rate dropped to fresh record low in 2023
- Date: 28th February 2024
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (FEBRUARY 28, 2024) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING AT GWANGHWAMUN PLAZA WOMAN AND GIRL WALKING WOMAN, MAN AND CHILDREN WALKING ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 25-YEAR-OLD UNMARRIED OFFICE WORKER, KIM SEUL-KI, SAYING: "There will probably be a situation when my child is sick and I need to leave the office to take care of it. But under the current work environmen
- Embargoed: 13th March 2024 05:11
- Keywords: Seoul South Korea baby birth rate fetility marriage rate young
- Location: SEJONG, SEOUL, SEONGNAM, SOUTH KOREA
- City: SEJONG, SEOUL, SEONGNAM, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001396428022024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: South Korea's fertility rate, already the world's lowest, dropped to a fresh record low in 2023, Statistics Korea announced on Wednesday (February 28), defying the billions of dollars spent by the country to try to reverse the trend as the population shrank for a fourth straight year.
The average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022, Lim Young-il, head of vital statistics division at Statistics Korea, told a news briefing.
South Korean residents in their 20s and 30s said financial support from the government and a better working environment to raise children was crucial for the birth rate to stop falling. They also said the lack of guarantees for women's careers once they had children was also contributing to fewer births.
Since 2018, South Korea has been the only member of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) to have a rate below 1. The South Korean government has made it a national priority to reverse the falling birth rate and in December promised to come up with "extraordinary measures" to tackle the situation.
(Production: Dogyun Kim, Minwoo Park) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None