Seoul city government moves to tackle low birth rates

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, talks with people on policies to tackle low birth rates during a press conference held at City Hall on April 12. [YONHAP]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will expand programs addressing childcare and subfertility to boost the city’s low birth rate.

The city government announced Sunday it will inject an additional 500 billion won ($370 million) into programs to support parents and future parents, raising total outlays for the programs to nearly 2.5 trillion won over five years.

Seoul’s birth rate remained at 0.59 percent last year, the lowest among cities in the country. The figure is even lower than the country’s average of 0.78 last year, which fell from 0.81 in 2021, marking the lowest among OECD countries.

The fertility rate is the average number of births projected for a woman during her reproductive years.

The city government’s project announced this month is an upgraded version of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s previous project in August last year targeting parents and custodians of children between the ages of 0 and 9.

This included granting monthly childcare subsidies to close relatives taking care of a child for as long as a year, as well as a childcare service for working parents.

Last July, the city government also allowed all married couples to receive subsidies for subfertility treatment.

Previously, only couples with a household income of 180 percent or less of the median income were provided with such subsidies.

This meant a two-person household with an income of 6.22 million won a month.

Around 64 percent of the applicants were from the higher income bracket after the relaxation.

Over two million people benefitted from the project, according to the city government.

The city government will increase its related projects and services to as many as 55 programs from the previous 28.

The expansion of projects comes as the city government said the measures rolled out beforehand are insufficient to tackle the city’s extremely low birth rate.

Starting next month, the city government will subsidize up to 2 million won for future mothers to freeze their eggs.

Subsidies to encourage parental leaves and to support childcare and postpartum care will also begin next month.

Eighty-six more "kids’ cafes" will be built in the city, the city government said.

The city government has been operating ten kids’ cafes since last year, visited by 46,000 people. The cafes are essentially indoor playgrounds, but with food and drink also available.

The city government will also expand taxi services for parents, equipped with baby seats, next year.

The service is currently offered in 16 districts of the city and will be offered in every district starting next year. Over 10,000 parents used the service a day.

Daycare centers run by the city will also be increased to 100 next year from the initial 80.

The measures to encourage childbirth come as over half of those between the ages of 19 and 34 in Korea responded last year that having a child is not a must after getting married, according to Statistics Korea’s data released Monday.

The percentage has been constantly rising from 46.4 percent in 2018, 50.5 percent in 2020 and 53.5 percent in 2022.

"One of the biggest crises that Korean society is facing is the extremely low birth rate," Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said.

“The metropolitan government is making every effort to draw up measures for low birth rates and will use every available policy and budget to address the issue.”

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]