After years of failed efforts to boost the birth rate, South Korea’s government now says it will focus some of its energy on learning to live with population decline, rather than simply trying to halt it.
The government has "found it will be difficult to reverse the low birth rate trend in the near future” and so will be adopting a "two track” approach of encouraging births, while finding ways to adjust the economy to a shrinking and aging population, according to a joint statement from 11 ministries on Wednesday.
South Korea’s fertility rate of 0.92 was the world’s lowest in 2019, and likely fell further last year as the uncertainty of the pandemic discouraged young people from marrying and having children. The population fell for the first time ever last year, while more people opting to live alone pushed the number of households to a record.