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Number of newborns drops for 91 straight months
By Yi Whan-woo
Korea saw its population decline in June of this year at the steepest rate for that month on record. The latest data adds to concerns that the country's entire population will retreat for the fourth consecutive year.
Analysts said the worsening demographic crisis casts doubts over the effectiveness of subsidies provided by the government to encourage couples to have more children.
They said the government should focus instead on building daycare centers, pre-schools and other facilities where parents can safely leave their children during working hours as many of them are dual-income families.
According to Statistics Korea, Korea's population declined by 8,205 in June from a month earlier with 18,615 babies born compared to 26,820 deaths.
It was the steepest decline for June since 1981 when the government began collecting such data.
The number of babies born was down 1.6 percent from a year ago, extending a year-on-year decline for 91 consecutive months.
The number of deaths inched up 7.6 percent year-on-year, continuing the trend of deaths surpassing births for 44 straight months.
As a result, Korea saw a cumulative population decrease of 52,032 people during the first six months of 2023.
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Correspondingly, the population is anticipated to shrink for the fourth straight year after falling by 33,000 in 2020, 57,000 in 2021 and 124,000 in 2022.
To keep the country's population stable at 51 million, the fertility rate or average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, should stand at 2.1.
The birth rate, however, fell to a record low of 0.70 in the second quarter of 2023, compared to 0.78 a year earlier.
Under the circumstances, analysts said improving conditions to raise children is the key to countering the rapidly dwindling population.
They noted that the number of marriages increased 7.8 percent year-on-year to 16,053 in June, with couples who had delayed their weddings during the COVID-19 pandemic tying the knot.
"I'd say there are more people who want to marry than those who want to have children," said Park Hye-rim, a researcher at Korea Institute of Local Finance. "The government should take that trend into account in its policies and ensure that increases in marriages also result in an increase in births."
The researcher pointed out that although subsidies provided by the government continued to increase to up to 1 million won ($757) per child, such support measures "do not reflect what parents need to raise children."
Park said since many parents are dual-income couples, having someone take care of their children while they are at work "will serve their interests the most."
