Statistics Korea announces ‘Low Birth Statistical Index’
A tough life for young people leads to low birth rates
Number of births has decreased by less than half in 20 years
The number of childless women aged 50 has tripled in 10 years.
It was found that the number of children born each year has decreased by more than half in the past 20 years. As the number of women who do not have children increases, the proportion of childless women in their 50s has also soared to three times the rate 10 years ago. The cost burden of marriage and childbirth, such as housing and education expenses, is increasing, and young people’s lives are becoming increasingly difficult.
On the 24th, the National Statistical Office released the ‘Low Birth Statistical Index’ containing this information after deliberation by the National Statistics Committee. The low birth rate statistical indicator is a data that provides a comprehensive look at the low birth rate status, and includes 53 indicators using existing statistics and 5 newly developed indicators.
According to this, the number of births decreased from 560,000 in 2001 to 230,000 last year. The total fertility rate, which is the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, also plummeted from 1.31 to 0.72 during this period.
As the number of women who do not have children is increasing, as of 2020, more than 1 in 10 (12.3%) women aged 50 (born in 1970) were childless. In 2010, only 4.4% of 50-year-old women (born in 1960) had no children, a figure that has nearly tripled in 10 years. The birth rate of women aged 50 also decreased from 1.96 in 2010 to 1.71 in 2020.
The costs of marriage, childbirth, and childcare are increasing, while the quality of jobs for young people is deteriorating and income is also stagnant. The proportion of regular workers among young workers in their 20s and 30s fell from 72.1% in 2003 to 68.8% this year. In particular, in the case of people in their 20s, 7 out of 10 (70.4%) were full-time workers in 2003, but this year, this proportion fell to 56.9%. As of 2022, nearly one in five young people aged 19 to 39 (18.3%) experienced a decline in their income class in the past year. In this age group, many young people’s income has fallen significantly, even though they are at the age when they should begin their social life in earnest and increase their income.
It was found that young people spend 23.1% of their salary on housing rent. On the other hand, housing welfare gradually retreated, with the supply of private and public rental housing rising to 514,000 units in 2018 and decreasing to 214,000 units in 2022. In particular, the concentration of young people in the metropolitan area has become more severe. The concentration of young people in the metropolitan area, which was 52.4% in 2015, increased by 2.4 percentage points to 54.7% last year. The average monthly private education expenses per elementary, middle, and high school child jumped from 239,000 won in 2013 to 434,000 won in 2023.
Meanwhile, in the newly released ‘Demand for Low Birth Policy System’, the majority of people (33.4%) chose ‘housing support’ as the most desired low birth rate policy. ‘Youth employment support, job creation’ followed at 20.8%, followed by ‘creating a work-life balance work culture’ (14.0%), ‘care support’ (11.5%), ‘improving a competitive educational environment’ (9.1%), and ‘cash support’. (8.0%), etc.
Sejong = Reporter Song Hye-mi [email protected]
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