The Lowest Fertility Rate in the World Just Got Lower—Again

South Korea's "national emergency" of declining births was only exacerbated in 2023 as the world's lowest fertility rate fell further. The average number of babies expected to be born to a woman during her reproductive life fell from 0.78 in 2022 to a new record low of 0.72, Statistics Korea reported Wednesday, per Reuters. That's far below the 2.1 threshold needed for South Korea's population of 51 million to hold steady. If the current trend continues, the population will be cut in half by 2100, per the BBC. Within 50 years, half of the population will be over the age of 65. The government views this as a huge problem, hence some $270 billion spent since 2006 on policies meant to encourage women to have children. They just don't seem to be having much effect.

Despite free hospital care, subsidized housing, paid parental leave, and other incentives, there was a 7.7% decrease in babies born in 2023 compared to 2022, per the Guardian. That's left politicians dreaming up other potential solutions, like bringing in nannies from South East Asia to be paid less than minimum wage and offering military exemptions for men who have three or more children before the age of 30, per the BBC. But many childless women say such proposals aren't enough to address their concerns, including that it's unfeasible to have children and work at the same time.

With children, "women typically can't build on their experience to climb higher at workplaces because they are often ... the only one doing the childcare," Jung Jae-hoon, a professor at Seoul Women's University, tells Reuters. It's hard to find a man "who will share the chores and the childcare equally," one woman tells the BBC. Though men and women are entitled to paid parental leave, only 7% of new fathers took leave in 2022 compared to 70% of new mothers, per the BBC. Given South Korea's competitive work culture, many women fear that taking leave will mean they'll be unable to return to work. According to the BBC, South Korea already has the worst gender pay gap of any country in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).