South Korea’s birthrate sinks to fresh record low as population crisis deepens
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Loading... - Dong-hyuk Noi
- 03 Apr 2023
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Latest statistics show 249,000 babies were born in 2022, a fall of 4.4% from the previous year
South Korea’s demographic crisis has deepened after new data showed the number of babies born last year reached another record low. According to figures released on Wednesday by Statistics Korea, 249,000 babies were born in 2022, a fall of 4.4% from the previous year and the third year in a row that deaths have exceeded births in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.
The birthrate also dropped to a record low, dealing a blow to government efforts to encourage couples to have more children. A South Korean woman can now expect to have an average of 0.78 children in her lifetime – the lowest level since records were first kept in 1970 – making South Korea the only country in the world with a fertility rate below one.
Experts say the rate needs to be at least 2.1 to keep the country’s population stable at 52 million. It is not the only country battling declining birthrates – Japan’s government recently warned that population decline was taking the country “to the brink of social dysfunction” – but the trend in South Korea is particularly alarming for policymakers. More young people are choosing to delay starting families or giving up on having children altogether. Read More…
