South Korea’s big political parties decide to focus on their country’s population decline
South Korea’s major political parties promised more public housing and easier loans in efforts to stem population decline outlined on Thursday ahead of elections in April, aiming to allay fears of “national extinction” as fertility rates crumble.
The parties’ focus on population in their election planks reflects growing alarm after the spending of more than 360trillion won ($268bn) since 2006 has failed to reverse record low fertility rates.
With South Korea expected to become a “super-ageing” society in 2025, as more than a fifth of its population passes 65, the government projects numbers will fall to 36.2-million in 2072 from 51.6-million in 2022.
“National extinction is not something that will happen far in the future, but instead it is an imminent challenge,” Lee Jaemyung, a leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said at a meeting rolling out its proposals.
South Korea projects its fertility rate, or the average number of children born to a woman, is likely to fall to 0.68 in 2024, past the figure of 0.78 in 2022, which was already a record low, according to the latest data. That compares with figures of 1.3 in Japan and 1.66 in the US in 2021. But South Korea’s woes date back to 1983, when the figure fell below 2.1, the level that will ensure population replacement.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a New Year message, referring to the population crisis. His conservative People Power Party, in its programme to make life easier for parents, focused on longer leave and flexible work conditions, as well as tax breaks for employers to offer familyfriendly working conditions.
At the April vote for a new parliament, Yoon’s conservatives will try to wrest the majority from the Democrats and help boost his probusiness agenda, including tax cuts, deregulation and market reforms.
The Democrats, campaigning to retain their majority, pledged more public housing for young families and low-interest loans that will be cancelled if they have children, for whom they will receive tax-free child grants through the years to high school.
“Having to choose not to have children, and there are many reasons for that, is truly a cruel reality,” Lee said.
He emphasised that the focus is on putting money where families say it is most needed to help them start and raise a family. The Democrats propose to help young families become homeowners by giving those with children the option of buying rental housing at rates below market prices.
Newly married couples will be entitled to low-interest loans of up to 100-million won, which will be cancelled if they have three children, with a similar amount in grants on offer, tied to the number of children. Housing and education costs in a society where relentless competition can begin as soon as the preschool years, have been cited as the reason fewer young people get married each year and families have fewer children later in life.
The percentage of couples married for five years or less with no children hit a record high of 46.4% in 2022, government data shows.
HAVING TO CHOOSE NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN, AND THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR THAT, IS TRULY A CRUEL REALITY