‘Miracle’ helps to revive the birth rate in Korea

On February 26, the first time after nearly a decade, the Korean statistical agency announced the birth rate of the country increased again. Many couples get married after a period of postponement because of the pandemic. The policies encouraging the company to create conditions for parents to begin to get results.

Nam Hyun-jin, 35, a mother, two children, realized that the change in society partly stemmed from the efforts of the Government and the business.

“Society encourages more children than 5 years ago, when we have the first child,” Nam said. She said that the company’s culture “great support”, making young families less hesitant in giving birth. Booyoung Construction Company, where she worked, started awarding 100 million won ($ 70,000) for employees who gave birth last year.

Some experts say that the change in social standards may be a key point to increase the birth rate in Korea. Over the past decade, the number of births of this country has dropped to the lowest level in the world, because the cost of housing and raising children has increased, causing women to prioritize career advancement than marriage or parents.

This demographic crisis became the biggest risk for the growth and social welfare system of the fourth largest economy in Asia. The population of 51 million people is at risk of half a decrease in the end of this century.

In 2024, the birth rate of Korea increased to 0.75 from 0.72 in 2023, after 8 consecutive years decreased from 1.24 in 2015. However, this was still a global record low, although officials spent billions of dollars trying to reverse this trend.

The increase mainly reflects the fact that people get married again after the pandemic. However, other figures indicate that this is not a temporary trend since Covid-19. Government policies are really effective. The number of young people who gave birth to the second child like Nam increased by 12% in the second half of 2024, higher than the 11% increase of young people who gave birth to their first children.

“The possibility of the birth rate will continue to increase in the coming years is very high. We are at the right point of the chart,” said You Hye-Mi, Secretary of the President of the population policy, said.

Last year, President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed to set up a new set, reserved to solve the “national demographic crisis”, in order to more comprehensive access to the issue of birth and aging population. Policy makers, economists and Korean mothers recognize government efforts in three areas: Housing discount; support women to balance work, family and child care; Promoting businesses with friendly parents. They think that coordinated moves have brought positive changes.

The government plans to spend 19.7 trillion won for these three key areas this year, up 22% compared to 2024.

“South Korea is facing the largest demographic challenges in the world. The government does not exaggerate when announcing the emergency of national demographics in June. Good news is that they really act urgently, towards structural reform instead of short -term solutions,” Kathleen Oh, the leader of the economic group on Korea and Taiwan of Morgan Stanley Bank, said.

At the same time, Korean businesses pay 100% of their salary for up to 6 months for families with parents to leave. Before that, they were paid only for three months. The maximum break time lasts from a year to a year and a half, for both parents. The number of father’s maternity leave increased from 10 days to 20 days. The government will pay employees in small and medium enterprises during leave.

Since this year, the Government has requested listed companies to put statistics related to child care into legal documents.

The policies seem to be effective. In 2024, the number of marriages increased sharply, with the fastest speed of each acceptance. In the government survey last year, 52.5% of Koreans expressed their positive views on marriage, the highest level since 2014.

“The government has done as much as possible at the institutional level.

Last year, Booyoung Construction Company recorded the highest number of employees in history, after announcing the cash support program.

“After all, this is also to protect the company itself. We build an apartment, and can only be sold if South Korea has enough buyers,” said Kim Jin-seong, Director of Booyoung’s Human Resources.

Many other companies also followed Booyoung. Krafton developer planned to disburse 100 million won to support family employees.

“Despite the difficulties, we need to ensure this ‘flame’ to live, by quickly filling the blind spots of the birth policy, such as focusing more on free workers and business people,” the Finance Minister Choi Sang-Mok, who currently holds the position of presidential rights, said.

However, for some people, especially the younger generation, “fire” – the motivation for marriage has disappeared. Kim Ha-Ram, 21, a student, still thinks that getting married and giving birth in Korean society is very expensive.

Korea’s last babies exploded in 1991-1996. The country now sets the goal of raising the birth rate to 1 in 2030, still much lower than the replacement of 2.1 – the necessary level to maintain a stable population.

Professor Shin of Hallym University said that South Korea’s temporary labor is a demographic challenge. South Korea has the second highest temporary labor percentage among countries under economic cooperation and development organization, at 27.3%, compared to the average of 11.3%.

“The gap between large and small companies in Korea, between long -term and temporary working people is very large, so the government needs a new approach to this issue,” said Professor Shin.

Jung Jae-Hoon, a social welfare professor at Seoul Women’s University, agreed with this view. He also said that companies should make more efforts, besides the government’s move.

“Through government investments, the child care system has been strengthened. But businesses still need to change and become more friendly to families,” he said.