Some 6 out of 10 working Korean women choose to be child-free

More than 60% of South Korean women from their mid-20s to their mid-40s who are currently working have no plan to have children although nearly all of them say it is ideal to have more than one child, underscoring the grim demographic future in the world’s fastest-aging country with the world’s lowest fertility rate.

According to a survey of working women aged 25 to 45, 62.2% of respondents answered that they have no plan to have any children in the future, according to the results of the Ipsos survey released on Tuesday.   

The global research company conducted an online survey on parenting and related issues with 1,000 working women in Korea from Feb. 5 to 20, which was commissioned by The Korea Economic Daily.

The result also showed that 66.6% of unmarried respondents and 59.2% of married ones said they had chosen not to have children. Of the unmarried women, 55.0% said they have no plans to get married.

Their reasons behind their decision range from not wanting to commit to parenting, not having the financial resources or fearing that children could be a hurdle to their achievements.

“Many people don’t feel comfortable working with female colleagues who are pregnant or are already raising children,” said a female public servant, 37, who declined to be named. “That makes many female workers think their pregnancy, deliveries or raising children could be a burden to their companies.”             

Her account partially explains why Korea has seen its fertility rate freefalling despite massive spending by the government to encourage women to have babies.

THE WORLD'S LOWEST FERTILITY RATE 

The Korean government earmarked 50.4 trillion won ($37.8 billion) to boost the country’s low fertility rate last year versus 2 trillion won in 2005.

Despite a big jump in the related budgets, Korea’s total fertility rate has fallen rapidly since 2015. Over the same period, the number of working women has risen rapidly, suggesting that many women chose to delay or give up having children in favor of their careers. 

The country’s total fertility rate hit the world’s lowest 0.7 in the third quarter of last year, matching the record in the previous three months.

The total fertility rate measures the average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to in her lifetime.

The number of births in the second quarter last year was 56,087, down 6.8% from the previous year. It is also the lowest ever for that quarter.

Given such a low birth rate, the country’s population was forecast to drop 11.7% to 45.77 million in 2050 from 51.81 million in 2022, according to the United Nations.

“In the next five to 10 years, those who were born in the 2000s when the country’s number of births stayed above 600,000 will reach the average age of first-time mothers. That is the golden time to raise the fertility rate and we must come up with unprecedented measures now,” said Yi Insill, the chairman of the Korean Peninsular Population Institute for the Future.

HUGE BILL TO RAISE ONE CHILD  

One of the biggest obstacles for married couples in planning a child is the giant price tag, according to the survey.

The survey respondents estimated that the average cost to raise a child for 19 years since their birth is 252.1 million won ($189,335.34), 16% higher than last year when a similar survey was conducted.

Many parents cannot resist expensive private play groups, English-only kindergartens and private medical school prep schools for elementary students, said an unnamed mother, 34, who gave up work after having her child.

These prestigious institutions cost too much, increasing the financial burden for parents, but many parents have no other option but to follow the trend partly due to the prevalent culture to keep up with others who flaunt their lives on social media, she said.

Many survey respondents thought that the government should subsidize up to  46.7% of these costs. 

A PROBLEM MONEY CAN'T SOLVE

Although more than half of the survey respondents cited financial burden as a reason that has aggravated the overall condition of raising children in this country such financial aid is not a magic wand in boosting the country’s birth rate.

Of the 622 respondents opting for a childless life, some  61.3% said state financial support doesn't change their minds about not having children. Especially, of the unmarried respondents who don't want children, 77.9% said such financial aid will not change their mind.

Double-income couples with no children also made up 50.2% of households in 2022, staying above half for a second straight year with 50.4% the previous year, according to data released by Statistics Korea in December last year.

Couples with double incomes had only 0.54 children on average, lower than the 0.73 of households with single incomes.

These numbers point to bumpy roads ahead for Asia’s No. 4 economy in its journey to recover the country’s fertility rate to 1.0 under the current administration.

Write to Dong-Wook Jwa and Jin-gyu Kang at leftking@hankyung.com


Sookyung Seo edited this article.