Economic supports failing to raise birthrate, says Korean demographer

7th September 2023

Moral and cultural factors are keeping birthrates in South Korea the lowest anywhere in the world as economic incentives have failed to boost births, according to a leading Korean demographer.

The Asian nation has spent more than $210 billion in the past decade to boost fertility, but birthrates have dropped to shocking new lows, well below one baby per woman.

Hungary likewise has gone all out to boost having children, although its fertility rate for gone from 1.2 in 2010, to 1.6 last year, indicating some progress is being made.

China also has tried going pro-natal recently, but it hasn’t worked so far, and it’s population is now shrinking.

In Korea, cash incentives are ineffective because larger societal issues such as intense competition for getting the best possible education and jobs haven’t been resolved.

Demographer Lee Sang-lim says the “younger generation fears perpetuating competition, and not having a child essentially lowers the risk of passing down unhappiness.”

Tim Carney of the American Enterprise Institute says if a society is anti-baby, then people just won’t have babies. He adds that South Korea’s ‘could-be’ parents are sad, not merely in an individual way, but as a society. He calls it “Civilizational Sadness”.

“In East Asia, Civilizational Sadness is tied up with overwork, and it leads to suicide. Civilizational Sadness in Europe and the U.S. has a different flavor, inflected with climate fear. The result is that falling birthrates are self-reinforcing. Fewer babies makes us sadder, and being sad makes us not want to reproduce”.