Learn from Germany to raise our birth rate

Kim Sang-ho
The author is a professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology and former president of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.

Korea’s total fertility rate sinking to a fresh low of 0.72 last year struck a nerve hard. The country’s birth rate fell to 0.65 in the final three months of 2023, its first touch below the 0.7 threshold. Only 230,000 babies were born last year. As the statistics office holds onto the pitiful birthrate of 0.68 for next year, Korea could be perennially mired in ultralow birth.

Bringing forth a child, like creating art, can be influenced by a myriad of factors. The birthrate mirrors the culture, values, and economic conditions of a society. In ancient Rome, women preferred freedom over giving birth. To promote births, the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, disallowed inheritance to women aged 50 or older if they did not bear any children, and levied tax for being unmarried until a third child was born.

East Germany’s fertility rate slipped to 0.98 in 1991, from 1.52 in 1990, when it was unified with West Germany. By 1994, that birthrate halved to 0.77. The figure has improved since then and is currently being sustained at 1.5, similar to the levels of the past West Germanl region. East Germans deferred or gave up giving birth to adapt to new life after unification. But once the uncertainties from the sudden change in the regime dissipated, people turned inwards to carry on with family life.

Young Koreans’ values have sharply changed; they now regard their individual wellbeing as a top priority. Economic hardship has turned young people to put off or cancel marriage plans. Those who do get married opt not to have children as they struggle to juggle family life and work — and they lost faith that their children could live happily in such a society.

In a highly competitive nation, marriage and having children feel like a pipe dream. The young devote their 20s to building credentials and finding a decent job, rather than to conceiving.

Given the worsening labor, housing and education environment, Korea’s pitifully low birthrate should not be surprising. Sadly, there is no magic wand that can bring it back up. Cash incentives by local governments have limited effect. To stop and reverse the downward spiral, our society must be friendly towards birth, and birth policy must be oriented towards changing the young people’s perspective.

Instead of short-term policy directly aimed to increase birth count, policy must draw out indirect changes that can motivate births. Birth policy should be rebranded as a “family” or “family happiness” agenda. Advanced countries with low fertility rates in Europe address their demographic problems through family policy rather than birthrate policy.

Germany’s agenda has four goals — financial stability and social participation, work-life balance, support for the wellbeing of children, and a social environment where those children can fulfill their dreams. Policies aimed at ensuring financial and housing security will help ease inequality, as well as promote births.

Some Korean companies have drawn public applause for offering generous rewards to employees who have babies, but efforts to create a work culture that appreciates family life are more important than one-time cash handouts. Companies must voluntarily encourage the use of parental leave, accommodate various forms of work and nix lengthy overtime. To lower the opportunity cost of birth, the government must expand parental leave, build more public day care centers, and raise the salaries paid during parental leave. The wage discrepancy between big and smaller companies also should be narrowed to bolster social mobility. Worries about housing must be alleviated.

To overcome our lethargic birthrate, society must become birth-friendly. Government offices, companies, the media, and civic groups must all chip in for a national drive. The prime minister or deputy prime minister in charge of the economy must implement effective — and workable — policies. To that end, the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy needs a sweeping overhaul.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.