The Chosun Daily has a look at Korea’s birthrate, which remains the lowest in the world. The older articles fit in with the newest one: article 4. They’re all interesting reading when taken side by side.
Article 1: Korea’s Birthrate remains lowest in the world. (from May 22)
Article 2: US posts Record-Breaking Birthrate in 2007 (from March 20)
Article 3: How France Managed to Raise its Birthrate (from May 6, and the most interesting of the lot, in my opinion)
Article 4: More Couples face Infertility (from today)
Talk amongst yourselves.
30/06/2009 at 10:59 pm Permalink
Of course the long term problem will be with the national pension system as well as general care for an aging population, but on the upside this country really doesn’t need anymore people. That is not a dig at Koreans or anything, there are just too many people in one spot here, and being that there aren’t that many viable exits it makes the country a bit of a fire hazard.
02/07/2009 at 12:28 pm Permalink
You know the problem’s severe when Choi Seon-jeong, president of the Planned Population Federation of Korea, says the following:
“Religious groups need to advocate respect for life, abortion prevention and positive values on marriage and parenthood, encouraging the younger generation to form families and have children.”
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/koreas_population_crisis/
02/07/2009 at 1:04 pm Permalink
I don’t think that the issue is so much abortion as much as it is about cost. It is pretty damn expensive to have kids in Korea just due to the education costs. Barrack Obama was talking about how America might go bankrupt because of the health care problem. I think that over time Korea could have the same problem if this education madness continues.
Most basically there are many fees involved even when you don’t factor in things like Hagwons and such.
First there are books, I don’t know how much books cost, but 8 subjects can’t be cheap.
Second, starting at middle school students have to buy a summer uniform, a winter uniform, and a Gym class uniform. at anywhere from 250,000 to 400,000 a piece a family can be out about 1,000,000 won just for uniforms.
Thirdly-highschool isn’t required for all students so all highschools charge fees, I’m guessing low at about 1,000,000 per year.
All of these costs add up when you figure that the average wage in Korea is about $25,000 per year, if that translates to about 50,000 per house hold that makes things better, but I didn’t even include social pressures like the temptation to send kids to hagwons.
Math and English Hagwons (on the low end) cost about 150,000-250,000 per month.
Havin kids here just doesn’t really pay off, It has to be pretty difficult to save for retirement if you have them.
03/07/2009 at 11:13 am Permalink
My sister (in America) pays 2,000 USD/month just for childcare (infant, no educational program). Top-tier private schools in America (elementary/high school) are 30K/year. Second-tier/decent private schools are about 20K/year. The hagwon I teach at charges 1 million won/month for a full-day educational/kindergarten program, which is also effectively childcare if both parents are working (maybe 700 USD/mo or so). I live in a really wealthy neighborhood, and I can’t imagine that there are many hagwon charging much more than we do. Not saying it’s cheap to send a kid to private school in Korea, but IMO it’s a bargain compared to what you’d pay in America, even for childcare.
The problem is the economy in general. Twenty-something Koreans with degrees from good colleges can’t get a job other than meagerly paid internships. How do you expect them to even fathom having kids, let alone going through the hagwon-hoops that are expected of them?
It’s a scary thought, but the longer Korea stays in the economic doldrums the more it’s going to resemble Japan and it’s “lost generation” of educated twenty- and thirty-somethings who have been screwed over by the economic mismanagement of their nation.
03/07/2009 at 11:14 am Permalink
(And in terms of the global economic slump, there’s plenty of blame to be placed with America. Didn’t want to sound anti-Korean since there’s plenty of blame to go around.)