Can South Korea fix its birth rate woes?

Month after month, it just kept plummeting. The South Korean birth rate last year earned the not-so-holy prize for being the lowest in the world. The demographic crisis faced by South Korea seems hardly the hallmark of the country’s self-proclaimed status as a ‘global pivotal state’. That said, the country’s fertility rate rose incrementally to a high of 0.75 births per woman in 2024, marking the first time in nine years that any such uptick has been seen.

It is too early to say whether the tide is turning. Nevertheless, South Korea faces an unholy combination of an ageing population (with the over 65 year-olds accounting for 20 per cent of the country’s nearly-52 million people) coupled with a catastrophically low birthrate. As is well-known, the demographic crisis is hardly the only one faced by the country, as the South Korean people wait to hear the fate of their impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

South Korea, whose moniker of the ‘Miracle on the Han River’ is testament to its rapid economic growth from rags to riches, is certainly no exception to the typical relationship between prosperity and fertility.