According to
the Korean Herald, the National Statistical Office (NSO) has announced that the
South Korea’s total fertility rate dropped to 1.08 last year, and reports the
number of newborns has also dropped nearly 8 percent to 438,000. The fertility
rate is the lowest in the world, and broke
The statistics confirm the ominous data released in the
“2006 world census” on August 17 by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB),
which estimated
The country’s birthrate has steadily dropped over the
decades from 4.53 in 1970 to the current level, which is half the replacement
rate of 2.2 required to maintain its population level.
Even South Korea’s neighbor, Japan, has a higher birthrate
of 1.25, and demographers estimate Japan’s declining population will plummet
from its current 128 million people to an estimated 101 million by 2050. If
By contrast,
demographers expect
The NSO statistics show that not only have Korean women
given birth to fewer babies in recent years, but the average age of mothers
giving birth to their first child has also increased. Many first time mothers
have delayed marriage and children due to more active participation in the
economy, which has considerably diminished the available window of childbearing
years.
For the
first time in history, South Korean women aged 30 to 39 gave birth to more
babies than women in their 20s last year. NSO data reveals these mothers in their 30s
contributed to more than half of the total births for 2005, higher than the
47.7 percent of births from younger women.
The government has unveiled a plan to offer bigger tax
incentives for households with two or more children in order to arrest the
declining birth rate. The economics package, however, also includes more
welfare measures for married couples, as if more day care services, preschool
education, and improved child care facilities will be enough to encourage South
Koreans to want more children.