I’ve read some explanations for their falling birth rate. What I don’t understand is, other developed countries also have those problems, their birth rates are low as well, but why are they not as low as SK’s?
In: 2587
A few reasons:
1. Higher levels of tertiary educational attainment by women tends to push birth rates down. Well educated folks tend to prioritize themselves and their careers more, versus poorly educated women are forced by society to be housewives and produce children generally. South Korea has one of the highest rates of college graduation in the world now
2. Real estate. Korea is a rugged, mountainous, densely populated peninsula. Over half the population lives in the Seoul metro area, which is the economic engine of the country. The policies around housing are a bit different than some other countries: it’s more common to deposit “key money” (or at least was a decade ago when I lived there) which is a large chunk of cash to get an apartment, which usually requires savings from your parents to afford. If you’re not from a wealthy established family, the prospect of financing the apartments of multiple children is dauting for parents
3. On the education note, it’s a very competitive job market. If you don’t get into a top 3 university, like Seoul National or Yonsei, your job prospects are pretty minimal. Not sure on now, but a few years ago Koreans spent a larger % of their income on education than any other OECD nation. You want the best tutoring and extracurriculars money can buy to give your children a chance at a good career, otherwise there’s minimal upwards mobility
4. Culturally, some East Asian countries like Korea and Japan have ranked very low in gender equality indexes. When the option is “remain single, have a social life and career” versus “give all that up to get married and become a housewife” increasingly more and more people just stay single into their 30s. As others have mentioned, the idea of a single mother is very much frowned upon socially, and getting pregnant out of wedlock (or getting divorced and having kids) has historically been very much frowned upon
5. Work/life balance. While it’s changing and becoming more relaxed, historically Korea had the highest working hours of any OECD country. When you’re working 12+ hour days, and socially obligated to go out drinking with your coworkers & managers at night to have any shot at a promotion, there’s not enough time in the day for a healthy amount of sleep, much less to have and raise children
Those are the main reasons I’d say, though I’m sure there are some other minor ones as well.
TL;DR – Korea is very densely populated, very well educated, has a hyper competitive education & career market, and it’s just very “expensive” both in time and money to raise kids relative to most other countries
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