For the first time in nine years, he enjoyed South Korea’s time RiseReverse a long -term trend witnessed a decrease in recording its lowest levels.

The fertility rate in the country decreased for eight consecutive years, making it the only member of the OECD Organization (OECD) at a rate of less than 1.

The personality of the newborns refers to the number of children born to every woman inside the population in her life. Experts say the birth of birth 2.1 is required to keep the population at the current levels.

Even neighboring Japan, which has long been considered a large number of population between their ages, has births higher than South Korea – at 1.2.

Does the last registered rise in South Korea, a turn in the country’s future, is it too early to celebrate?

What happened to the topic in South Korea?

According to the National Statistics Agency, Korea statistics rose, as the birth rate (which is often referred to as fertility rate) increased to 0.75 in 2024 after reaching a historical level of 0.72 in the previous year.

After publishing a rate of 1.24 in 2015, Eight consecutive years of births It resulted in the fact that South Korea has the lowest rate of the topic in the world. However, rates vary throughout the country, and the birth rate is still particularly low – only 0.58 percent – in the capital, Seoul, where more than 18 percent of the country’s population lives.

The latest national population composition report in the country, which was released last Wednesday, showed that there are more than 240,000 births registered throughout the country last year.

This is slightly higher than 235,000 births in the previous year, but it is still less than 600,000 to 700,000 births registered in each of the nineties. Moreover, last year, 120,000 people died more than he was born.

Experts say the sudden rise in the number of marriages in South Korea may be a reason for the new rise in his country’s births. There were 14.9 percent of marriages in 2024 compared to the previous year, the largest rise since the records began in 1970.

What is the effect of the low -birth rate on the population in South Korea?

The national population remained mainly constant for several years. It fell to more than 51.2 percent last year, after it pe to the peak of 51.83 in 2020, when the number of deaths increased by 1.7 percent compared to the previous year.

People in the fifties make up a high percentage of the population, by 17 percent, while children under the age of 10 are still the smallest percentage, by 6.13 percent.

The number of children between the ages of 14 and the population of work (between the ages of 15 and 64 decreased last year. While people between the ages of 65 or 5.41 percent have increased to make up more than 20 percent of the population now, South Korea is now a super -age society.

Why do more South Koreans marry?

Korea officials told statistics a news conference this week that “the rising trend in marriages after the Covid-19s”, demographic shifts, and changes in social behaviors explain the height.

“There was a change in social value, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth,” said Park Hyun Jong, an official in Korea statistics, at the conference.

“It is difficult to measure the extent of each worker contributed to the height of new births, but they themselves had an impact on each other as well.”

However, the main driver of the high birth and marriage rate appears to be the increase in the number of people in the early thirties who are considered the main age group for childbearing.

The group is born in 1991 and 1995, and it consists of children born in the second generation children who were born between 1964 and 1974, and they are considered the largest generation in the country, which represents 18.6 percent of the total population.

Why has the birth rate in South Korea decreased in recent years?

According to officials in the city of Seoul, the high costs of living, the imbalance between work and life and the difficulty in providing children’s quality care are some of The main reasons People say they delay or reject the idea of ​​marriage and raise children completely.

In a country where young unemployment rates have deteriorated sharply in recent years, the number of young active economists steadily decreased – a trend that has continued over the past decades.

Despite the high level of education among young people among young people, more companies require “specifications” – or a set of qualifications, certificates and other achievements to enhance a person’s competitiveness – and work experience, which is difficult to obtain the latter alongside the required southern education system.

Even when one is employed, the country has one of the longest work weeks among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at a rate of 36 hours average a week. As a result, experts say, achieving a satisfactory balance of work and life Become more difficult.

What steps did the government take to address this?

The South Korean government has spent more than 360 trillion Won (270 billion dollars) on programs such as childcare subsidies since 2006, and since 2022, parents have obtained a cash payment of two million Won ($ 1510) at the birth of a child. This year, the city of Seoul is also planning to give one million o’clock ($ 685) to newly married couples who register their marriage in the capital.

This year, the new fathers regulations will lead to 20 days from paid paid leave.

kiss Dismissal In December, after announcing the country’s emergency combat rulings, President Yoon Sok Yol also announced a “national demographic crisis” and a plan to establish a new ministry devoted to addressing low -birth rates. The measures include increasing parenting allowances, implementing flexible working hours, expanding the age limit to reduce working hours for young children’s parents and providing subsidies for employers who rent temporary alternatives to employees on parental leave.

Yun also pledged to increase child care support and expand post -school programs in primary schools to reduce the burden on the parents of working.

South Korea has also tried to revive societies with low fertility rates. In the city of Pyeongtaek, two hours by car south of Seoul, for example, the newly created apartments across the city and create job opportunities including the new Samsung Electronics campus more in the region. It is now one of two cities with a population of more than 300,000, which has maintained a fertility rate of more than 1.

In 2022, Seoul launched 6.7 trillion Won ($ 4.58 billion) the “birth support project” to encourage more marriages and childbirth in the capital. This included reducing the cost of living for the new newlyweds by providing social welfare housing and increasing the number of day care centers.

The government turned into more creative plans as well. For example, Seoul officials organize meetings for single people in the city who find it difficult to find time or space to meet other people.

On the past Valentine’s Day, the Celebrities government organized a event called “Romance, the Night of Art”, with 50 men and 50 women associated with a place in the city. This event was complete with dinner, champagne, “Bingo is a love character” and an exercise with 100 participants in the eyes of each other for 10 seconds. After attracting nearly 2,400 people, the event ended with a high note, as half of the participants said they found a partner.

Will the birth rate continues to rise?

Maybe not. Zhou Eunjo, associate professor of sociology at the National University of Jeonbuk, reduced the importance of the recent rise in the country’s birth.

In addition to the average that is still 0.75, much less than 2.1 children who need to maintain the country’s population at its current level, it believes the birth rate will decrease again in the near future.

“The number of births in the nineties hovering about 600,000 to 700,000 births annually, but this number decreases only when we go to 2000s,” Zhou told Al -Jazeera.

The country witnessed a decrease in births to 300,000 a year in 2017 and went to 200,000 in 2020.

“Therefore, even if the birth space is kept somewhat, the number of births will shrink significantly,” said Zhu. “We need to prepare for the various social changes and problems that will arise with this sharp decline in the population.”

For example, Zhou stressed that the government needs to prepare for the demands for the national pension in a country that has already reached high -life levels.

The government should also focus on how the education system is forced to adapt to the declining need for schools and teachers in the country, and how regional policies will have to change in rural areas facing the risk of extinction.

It is expected that the population of South Korea, which has shattered about 50 million marks for some time, will shrink to 36.22 million by 2072, according to the dropping of the latest Korea statistics.

Zhou also pointed out that the South Korean society has not changed its views on marriage or birth, while the outside marriage partnerships formed large parts of birth rates in Western societies since the late twentieth century.

“But the most important issue is the fact that the percentage of people in South Korean society who are able to plan or depict their lives in a very low -low way,” Zhou said. “People do not marry or become pregnant because the government tells them that.”

Instead, she said, society should search for the reason for people unwilling to marry or raise children in the first place.

“How can we be able to imagine the younger generation to look at this, to plan this.”