Ilsan, South Korea — In their apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, Kwon Jang-ho and Cho Nam-hee sat down recently at the kitchen table to work out the monthly budget for their month-old son, Ju-ha.
In , the average number of babies expected per South Korean woman dropped to 0. The replacement rate in developed countries — the number of births needed to keep the population stable — is typically about 2. South Korea, which rose from poverty to developed country status in the span of a generation, is not known for its strong social safety — its social spending is among the lowest in the OECD.
Other benefits include medical costs for pregnant women, infertility treatment, babysitting services and even dating expenses. Cho Joo-yeon, a year-old Korean language interpreter in Seoul who has been married for 10 years, said having children has never been an option for her and that no amount of government support would change her mind. In a survey carried out last year by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Among young South Korean women, just 4 percent view marriage and parenthood as essential, with more than half seeing neither as important in their lives, according to survey data from the Korean Association for Social Welfare Studies.
In , there were just , marriages in South Korea, where births out of wedlock remain rare, an all-time low. Experts have often pointed to the need to address a complex web of issues keeping families from having children, including a gruelling work culture, sky-high housing and education costs, and gender inequality.
In a survey carried out for the Joongang Ilbo newspaper earlier this year, Other cited reasons included job insecurity, housing instability and other economic factors. Some controversial remedies that have been floated by politicians include exempting men with three or more children from compulsory military service and allowing foreign domestic workers to work for less than minimum wage to alleviate the burden of housework.
