As birthrates plummet, kindergartens become nursing homes

Social Affairs

Published: 17 Jan. 2024, 10:07 Updated: 17 Jan. 2024, 14:27

As birthrates plummet, kindergartens become nursing homes

Older adults play with toy bricks at a nursing home that used to be a kindergarten in Gwangju on Jan. 3. The bricks were used by the former kindergarten students. [HWANG HEE-KYU]

Nose-diving birthrates are making older adults take over spaces previously occupied by children, transforming kindergartens into nursing homes.

A 40-year-old kindergarten in Gwangju underwent just such a transformation.

The facility has become a playground for older adults in their 80s and 90s who were making flowers with toy bricks and using crayons used by the kindergarten’s children just a few years ago.

“Because of the plummeting birthrates since the 2010s and the Covid-19 pandemic, I had to close the kindergarten,” said Lee Min-suk, 56, the former kindergarten owner and now a nursing home owner.

The kindergarten had more than 150 students enrolled back in its heyday.

A sign for a child protection zone is installed on the road in front of a nursing home that was once a kindergarten in Gwangju on Jan. 3 . The former kindergarten owner transformed the facility into the nursing home because of low birthrates. [HWANG HEE-KYU]

However, Lee had to reduce classroom sizes because of the continuing student quota shortfall after 2018.

“With such a rapid decline in students, I had to cut 11 former employees, including teachers and drivers. There were only six employees left in the end,” Lee said.

“It is heartbreaking whenever I hear someone who attended my facility passed away.”

According to Statistics Korea, the country’s total fertility rate — the average number of births a woman is expected to give during her reproductive years — fell below 1 in 2018 to 0.977.

It has continued plummeting with no rebounds, hitting 0.78 in 2022.

Along with declining birthrates, fewer people are marrying nowadays, accelerating society's aging.

“Harmony Wedding Town” (left) in May 2010 and “Citizen Funeral Hall” in Busan in July last year. The funeral hall took over the space of the wedding venue. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Reflecting this trend, wedding venues are revamping into funeral homes.

One funeral home in Gwangju used to be a wedding venue until 1998. The owner at the time thought the funeral business would prosper because of demographical changes. So, he changed businesses.

“Some bereaved families say that the place where they tied the knot became a funeral parlor for their parents,” an employee from the funeral home said.

Another funeral home in Busan used to be a wedding venue named “Harmony Wedding Town.” The wedding venue, with seven stories above the ground and four stories under the surface, turned into the funeral home in December 2013.

“Our facility used to accommodate around 100 deceased people monthly just four years ago,” said Moon Seong-hoon, the funeral home's owner. “But demand has doubled recently.”

“Baby boomers are getting old. This will trigger higher demand for funeral services,” he added.

In Cheonan, South Chungcheong, another wedding venue has been transformed into a funeral home.

The country had some 1,030 wedding venues nationwide in 2018. However, there were only 754 left in 2023. In other words, more than 276 wedding venues have gone out of business over the last five years.

According to Statistics Korea's dataset from 2022, only 1.03 million newlywed couples had registered their marriage over the previous five years, a record low since the government began tracking the figure in 2015.

The figure was 1.1 million in 2021 and 1.47 million in 2015.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said there were 51.32 million Koreans by the end of last year.

Korea has been experiencing a population decrease for the last four years — a situation where death tolls outnumber the newborn counts. A total of 353,920 Koreans died and 235,039 babies were born in 2023.

“If kindergarten, nursery and pediatrics keep going out of business like this, it will exacerbate the status quo where people are avoiding pregnancy,” said Choi Seul-ki, a professor at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management.

“Incentives and support policies that can boost birthrates should be crafted, just like the recent proposal to increase child care subsidies and increase recipients.”

BY SPECIAL REPORTING TEAM [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]