The number of newborns in South Korea in 2023 reached the lowest level since the first statistics on the subject in 1970, Seoul announced on Wednesday, even as the government has spent billions of euros to encourage births.
“The number of newborns was 230,000 in 2023,” down 7.7 percent from 2022, Lim Young-il of the Census Bureau of the State Statistics Agency told reporters on Wednesday. South Koreans.
In 2023, the crude birth rate, i.e. the number of newborns per 1,000 inhabitants, was 4.5 compared to 4.9 in 2022, according to these preliminary data.
“The number of newborns (…) and the crude birth rate are all at their lowest levels since 1970,” the year in which this data began to be collected, described Lim Young-il.
In order to maintain the population at its current level (51 million people), women would have to give birth to an average of 2.1 children over the course of their lives. But in 2023, the birth rate continued to fall and reached 0.72.
At this rate, South Korea's population will almost halve to 26.8 million in 2100, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA.
Seoul has spent billions of euros to encourage births through social benefits, child care and help with infertility treatment.
According to experts, the low birth rates are due in particular to real estate prices and the high costs of raising children in a competitive society that also makes it difficult to find well-paid jobs.
A central factor is also the double working day for women, who often take on responsibility for the household and raising children after returning from work.
“After seeing so many mothers around me giving up their careers, I decided not to pursue the path of motherhood,” a 37-year-old office worker told AFP, asking to be identified only by her name . Family member, Jeon.
According to Ms Jeon, who has been married for four years, the country's very rigid business culture is the main reason for her decision. She believes that more flexibility in the workplace is “more important than government benefits.”
“In this environment, it is impossible to raise a child without sacrificing the parents' careers,” Ms Jeon said.
Many developed countries are struggling with low birth rates, particularly in neighboring Japan, where births fell for an eighth straight year in 2023, data showed on Tuesday.