In December 2023, Incheon City, South Korea released the “100 million + i dream” plan, which netizens laughed at as the “heavy money to seek children” plan:
“If you give birth to a child, you will receive a subsidy of 100 million won!”
100 million won, equivalent to 546,000 yuan, is a considerable amount of money.
Why is South Korea suddenly spending a lot of money to encourage young people to have children?
Because if we don’t have children, this country may slowly disappear!
In recent years, South Korea’s total fertility rate has continued to decline. According to data from Statistics Korea, it was 0.81 in 2021, 0.78 in 2022, and by the third quarter of 2023, it was only 0.7.
The total fertility rate (total fertility rate) refers to the average number of children per woman of childbearing age.
South Korea’s total fertility rate is 0.7, which means that the average number of children a Korean woman of childbearing age has in her lifetime is 0.7.
Generally speaking, if the number of the previous generation and the next generation is to be equal, then the total fertility rate must reach 2.1 to reach the generation replacement level. If this value is lower than 1.5 (fertility warning line), it is an extremely low level in the world.
China’s total fertility rate is about 1.16, which is also the lowest in the world. The total fertility rate in the United States is 1.78.
Looking at the world, South Korea’s total fertility rate has continued to decline in recent years, not only hitting a record low in the country’s history, but also the lowest in the world.
And this downward trend, like the Boney Nomi card, will only become more and more difficult to control.
The latest forecasts show that if current trends continue, the country’s population will decline every year starting in 2025.
The total fertility rate may rebound slightly in 2026, but the overall decline is inevitable. By 2072, the population is estimated to be only 36.2 million, a full 30% less than the current population of 51.7 million, and nearly half of them are elderly people. .
Many people fear that the country will disappear from the map.
And the final analysis of all this is that young Koreans, those who are single are not willing to get married, and those who are married are not willing to have children.
Housing stress, education stress, and work stress
In South Korea, more and more young people feel that marriage is “unnecessary.” Among young people aged between 20 and 30, more than 50% insist on not getting married.
A man named Kim in South Korea is a non-marriage advocate. He told the reason why he does not marry:
“I don’t want to support a family, not now or in the future, and I don’t want anyone to bother me about how much I earn, or nagging me that I’m not good enough. Having a family means that I have to be the breadwinner of the family, and I I thought it would be very tiring, so I didn’t want to.”
Among those who are already married, 40% of couples do not want to have children.
A woman in her 30s said that she had been married for two years and she and her lover agreed not to have children.
“This will put a lot of pressure on us physically, financially and psychologically. I don’t want to give up these few years of good time to raise children. I think we are doing very well now.”
The total fertility rate in South Korea has been declining year by year. To put it simply, young people feel that work pressure is too great, so they do not want to get married and have children;
If you dig deeper, it is related to gender preference, housing costs, education investment, social competition, female labor force, rising divorce rate, etc.
When it comes to having boys and girls, South Korea has a strong preference. Especially in the 20th century, they tended to give birth to a boy for the first time. For this reason, if the first birth was a girl, the mortality rate would be very high. Although this is illegal, it cannot stop people’s obsession. The situation has improved in recent years.
When it comes to education, Koreans are quite willing to spend money. There is a common belief that “if you don’t send your children to tutoring, you don’t love them.”
At the same time, with the development of the times, women have begun to rise. More and more people no longer only pursue family, but work more for their own careers. Fewer and fewer people are willing to get married and have children.
In addition, the widespread high cost of buying a house, fierce social competition, etc. have made young people stop thinking about marriage and children.
Low fertility is a common phenomenon
In fact, not only South Korea, the total fertility rate in many countries in 2023 is also very low. Germany is 1.5, Japan is 1.3, Ukraine is 1.3, Thailand is 1.3, and Singapore is only 1.
China’s total fertility rate is 1.16, only about half of the generation replacement level of 2.1, ranking fifth from the bottom in the world, and the situation is not optimistic.
There is an example around me. There are 4 people in the same dormitory at university. I am the only one who has children, and the other 3 are girls:
One is still unmarried and feels that he cannot run a family well or raise children well, and is subjectively afraid;
Two of them are married, one insists on being a DINK and does not have children, and the other has not had children even after being married for several years. He thinks that having children will reduce the quality of life.
In order to reverse the situation of population decline, different countries have also taken great pains.
The policy introduced by Incheon this time is indeed very attractive. Children can enjoy corresponding subsidies from birth to 18 years old. Including various subsidies from parents, the cumulative total is 100 million won (546,000 yuan).
In other words, it is provided in installments, which is similar to the method used in many other developed countries.
In Norway, Denmark, France and other places, in addition to regular paid leave and maternity allowances, each local child will receive an after-tax family allowance every month (or every quarter), which can alleviate the financial pressure on parents to raise children.
Sweden is known as one of the countries with the best maternity treatment in the world. Sweden has what other countries should have. What is more special is that the longest maternity leave is 16 months, and the husband has 2 months. The total fertility rate in Sweden is 1.7.
at last
Compared with other countries, our policies seem to be average, but in fact, the situation in each country is different, and there is no certain one who is good and who is bad.
All we can say is that the existing policies are the best and most optimal solution.
After all, everyone wants to increase the total fertility rate and is willing to use better policies to encourage childbirth.
China’s treatment in this area is at a medium level, with maternity allowances, paid vacations, tax exemption policies… and they are getting better and better, so there is no need to worry too much.
I think giving birth to a child is a very contradictory thing.
At the national level, having more children is very important. A high fertility rate means an increase in population. A large population can alleviate population aging and help the national economy.
Down to the individual, there are indeed many people who do not want to have children due to various pressures, and this behavior is very understandable.
I have experienced giving birth and raising children myself, and the hard work involved is real, but the happiness is also real. It depends on how you choose, to live a life of freedom and freedom, or to carry forward with a heavy burden for love?
Editor in charge: Shang Shangwen Q
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2024-01-07 11:40:00
