South Korea is facing the issue of being the country with the lowest birthrate in the world. Addressing the issue, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said today that he wants to create a new ministry to address the country’s low birthrate facing a threatening demographic crisis. “I ask the parliament’s cooperation to revise government organisation to set up the Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter Planning,” he said while addressing the nation live.
The nation boasts one of the longest life expectancies globally and has one of the lowest birth rates, posing a significant demographic challenge in the future.
Despite investing billions of dollars in initiatives aimed at encouraging women to have more children and ensuring population stability, the country’s birth rate was recorded to be low last year, according to an official data.
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As per the preliminary data from Statistics Korea in February, the fertility rate which is the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime dropped nearly eight percent from 2022 to 2023. It lowered to 0.72 in the year 2023 which is the lowest among OECD nations as 33.6 is the average birth rate along with being the highest in OECD.
Although, the government is spending heavy amount to promote more babies such as babysitting facilities, support towards infertility medication and cash subsidies, the situation remains the same in the country.
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The birth rate in South Korea falls significantly below the 2.1 children required to sustain the current population of 51 million. It will result in nearly halving the population by the year 2100, experts estimate.
Yoon’s remarks about the birth rate ministry preceded his first press conference in nearly two years, following his party’s substantial defeat in last month’s general elections.
