[Journalism Internship] Gov’t efforts to increase national fertility lacking

Journalism Internship

[Journalism Internship] Gov’t efforts to increase national fertility lacking

Published: 26 Oct. 2023, 06:57 Updated: 30 Oct. 2023, 12:09

A hospital bassinet is empty in a neonatal room at a hospital in Seoul. [YONHAP]

DANIEL KANG, YEONGHUN SONG, WOOHYOEK JI, YUBIN PARK

Despite the exorbitant government expenses in its efforts to increase the tumbling fertility and birth rates in Korea, an innovative measure to reverse for the fundamental causes of the phenomenon is urgent.

Korea’s total fertility rate was ranked last among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, with 0.78 children per woman – the only nation to maintain an ultra-low birth rate.

Low birth rate refers to a phenomenon in which the fertility rate is lower than the minimum total fertility rate of 2.1, which is required to maintain a country's population. An ultra-low fertility rate means it is less than 1.3.

Forty years have passed since Korea entered its low birth rate status in 1983, and 23 years have passed since Korea entered the ultra-low birth rate ranks in 2001.

Scholars cite many overlapping reasons and say it cannot be narrowed down to just one cause, but some experts point to a change in people’s mindsets, worsened by the increasing cost of raising a child in the country.

Young people who internalized individualism and present values are skeptical about marriage, according to Park Si-na, a secretary at the National Statistical Development Institute. Park says that their priorities, which have changed over time, compelled more to not get married or have kids.

"There is a clear delay in marriage among professional and highly educated women in their 30s, and married women living in the Seoul metropolitan area with high education are less willing to give birth,” he said.

The cost of raising a child in Korea is more expensive than anywhere else, a report by Bloomberg claimed. The report, published in September 2023, claimed that "Having children in developed countries is expensive. But in Korea, there is evidence that parents are spending more money on their children's futures than in other countries.”

The report cited Shinhan Bank's statistics, which show that each Korean middle and high school student spent about $6,000 on education last year, mostly on cram schools. Bloomberg points out that Korean parents' spending puts a financial burden on the cost of raising their children, especially due to the education.

The “Seoul Republic Phenomenon” is another reason for the low birth rate, claims Professor Cho Young-tae and Jeon Young-soo. With 9.7 million people currently gathering in Seoul, the price of housing has risen 30 percent compared to ten years ago. Based on the ever-increasing housing prices caused by urbanization in the metropolitan area, the opinion emphasizes that survival competition due to overpopulation is also an aspect that cannot be ignored and that this is a big challenge because it exists in resolving low birth rates.

At the same time, economic growth is a fundamental cause, suggested Karan Singh, India's former population minister and current economist. He gave a "development is the best contraception" statement at the United Nations Conference on Population based on the fact that countries with higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) have lower birth rates than most poor countries, namely countries with lower per capita GDP.

There have been several attempts to increase the fertility rates of Korea over the last couple of decades. “Almost 280 trillion won [200 billion dollars] have been invested in the past 15 years but have failed to reverse the trend,” said Kim Young-Mi, Vice Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population. The Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population was established in 2005 with the purpose of deliberating matters concerning low fertility rates and the aging society of Korea.

Some main areas the Committee covered are establishing policies to support housing payments and creating a family-friendly corporate culture. This is an approach aimed at the two largest reasons that the youth population of Korea is reluctant to marry or give birth, which are high housing prices and the balance of child care and work, according to a 2022 study by the Korea Research Institute.

However, past approaches have been made in fragmented and individual projects, said Researcher Lee Sang-Lim of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. He claimed that approaches should be made with a wider view of state policy. Researcher Lee emphasized that it is difficult to tackle the structural problems of society that result in low fertility rates with such approaches.

The government and the private sectors announced various measures to support families and encourage childbirth to solve Korea’s serious demographic crisis. Most recent policies by the government have been focused on increasing the budget for housing support for childbirth households, regardless of their marital status.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport has set aside the budget for 2024 to 60.647 trillion won, an 8.8 percent increase from the previous year's main budget. The budget will be used to provide low-interest loans and a special supply of public and private housing units for newly birth-given households, totaling 70,000 households per year.

The 2023 Korea Gender Equality Forum was held on Sep. 2. During the Forum, experts of the field discussed reinstating programs for female empowerment and gender equality, such as those in Canada or Europe, to help women balance work and family life. Many Korean citizens who were interested in this topic attended the forum. Kim, the low birth rate committee vice chairman, said at the 2023 Korea Gender Equality Forum, held by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, that Korea needs to create a social environment where women can pursue their careers and have children without discrimination or pressure.

Korean private enterprises also seemed to be focusing on this issue.

Hana Financial has been carrying out the "100 day care center construction" project since 2018, with a budget of about 150 billion won, which aims to build more day care centers to provide affordable and quality child care services to working parents. The project aims to complete the construction of a day care center in 2024 and provide child care benefits to about 10,000 children.
Some experts claim that a falling birth rate may not even be a cause of concern. They underline that concerns regarding the sub-replacement fertility rate that mention the decrease in labor forces is outdated.

There are opinions that advocate low fertility rates. As more public funds could be devoted to investments in education, declining fertility can enhance the quality of each child’s life. More investment in each child’s education may have a positive upshot in a knowledge-based economy. Brookings wrote, “Lower fertility wouldn’t be a bad thing. Children would be better cared for and more upwardly mobile.” Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, argues that it is more important to work on the measures to adapt to demographic changes rather than obsessing over numbers.

“As humanity moved on from the agricultural economy, a child became an expense rather than a resource,” said Oh Eun–young, a renowned psychiatrist in May last year. To back that up, the World Population Review shows that sub-replacement fertility is mainly demonstrated in nations where the economy does not depend on its agricultural industry.

The biggest dangers dropping fertility rates impose are expected to be coped with automation. A study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization in April 2023 under the title, “Automation and Population Growth: Theory and cross-country evidence,” shows that adopting and/or inventing new automation technologies “may help [countries] to overcome some of the negative effects that declining population growth and population aging imply for long-run economic prosperity.”

BY DANIEL KANG, YEONGHUN SONG, WOOHYOEK JI, YUBIN PARK[jskang26@kis.ac, yeonghunssp23@gpa.ac.kr, 2025wji@dis.sc.kr, parkyubin1228@gmail.com]