The number of newborns in South Korea, a country of 51 million inhabitants, reached its lowest level in 2023 (230,000) since the first statistics on the subject in 1970, Seoul announced in February, despite billions of euros spent by the government to encourage births.
The crude birth rate, that is to say the number of newborns per 1000 inhabitants, thus fell to 4.5, compared to 4.9 in 2022, according to preliminary data from the public statistics body. The fertility rate has fallen to 0.72 children per woman, far from the 2.1 needed to maintain the population at its current level. This rate has not been reached in the country since the end of the 1980s.
Measures to encourage births… In vain
At this rate, and without recourse to immigration, the South Korean population should be reduced almost by half by 2100, according to experts.
The country’s fertility rate is the lowest among member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the average age at which a woman gives birth to her first child is 33.6 years, the lowest high in the OECD.
Seoul has unsuccessfully spent large sums trying to encourage births, through allowances, childcare and help with infertility treatments.
Yoon Suk Yeol gives his first press conference in almost two years on Thursday, following his party’s defeat in April’s legislative elections.
