Dear MEL Topic Readers,
South Korea’s birthrate is so low, the president wants to create a
ministry to tackle it
The population of South Korea has been declining slightly but steadily in
recent years and is projected to show a further and steeper decline in the
coming years. The main reason for the population decrease is the nation’s low
fertility rate, the world's lowest, which decreased from 1.24 in 2015 to 0.72
last year. Women are so concerned about their career advancement and the
financial cost of raising children that they delay childbirth, give up having any
babies, or even stay unmarried. Also, the population of the greater Seoul
exceeds 50% of South Korea&s total population, which makes the cost of
living, especially the housing cost too expensive for young people to form a
family and raise children. Socially, there is a significant gender pay gap in workplaces,
unshared domestic burdens, and discrimination against single parents or
unmarried couples. South Korean government has been tackling the problems for
years but has had no success. Now, stating the low birth rate as a national
emergency, the government is planning to establish a new ministry to change the
trend. Japan
already has had a Minister of State for Measures for the Declining Birthrate
since 2007 and has appointed 25 ministers so far but has shown no progress. How
much influence does politics have on social matters?
Read the article and learn about South Korea’s new attempt to increase
the birth rate.
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