Article from Yonhap News:[2015/12/10]
The 2015 Korean Societal Trends Report from Statistics Korea
It appears that the proportion of couples in their late 30s among the number of childless homes has been quadrupled in the last 35 years.
On the 10th of December, the Statistics Research Institute, part of Statistics Korea, presented the 2015 Korean Societal Trends Report and according to this report, the number of childless homes in 1975 was 1.6% and rose to 2.1% in 2010.
During that period, the ratio of childless homes where the wife is between 35 and 39 years old increased from 1.1% to 4.1%, showing a dramatic increase.
Childless homes are defined as homes without a child where the wife is between 35 and 64 years old.
The rate of childless homes where the wife is between 35 and 44 continues to increase, along with the trend of marry at a later age.
As the time spent as a married couple gets shorter, the likeliness of not have children increases.
[The report showed that] in 2010, 36.7% of men in their thirties were unmarried, an increase from 12.4% in 1995. The percentage of unmarried women in their thirties rose from 4.6% to 19.9% in the same period.
Wives from childless homes show a tendency to have a higher education level and higher positions in their companies than the wives of homes with children.
While women with a higher education level are seeking more work experience and self-realization, they are delaying marriage.
In the 1975 Housing and Population census, the average education level of the wife from a childless home was below elementary school, while in 2010 the average was a high school education.
The percentage of wives from childless homes focusing on their career was 0.9% in 1975 and increased to 17.0% by 2010.
The number of childless couples with high educational backgrounds or who are focusing on their careers but wish to raise children was rather high.
Professor Kye Bong-oh from Kukmin University and Professor Kim Du-seop from Hanyang University mentioned that, “If the number of childless homes keep increasing, we really have to consider that the situation of low fertility will intensify, and as such, future policies aimed at increasing the fertility rate will have to be targeted to well-educated and high-positioned women.”
Comments from Naver:
eds****
The president is also unmarried, without children, and lives well, so why are we constantly being told to get married and have kids. Why is she pushing measures that are totally out of touch with reality.
hoog****
We’re told to have kids just for them to inherit our poverty… they want to make tax-paying machines … educational expenses for an elementary kid is 1.5 million won a month! Even if you are a double income family, this is hard to take… Politicians have money so they don’t really care… People who live paycheck to paycheck need to go into debt to pay for their kids’ education all the way up through university. They grow up to become tax-paying machines. It’s funny but sad.
iceb****
If you have kids its nice to see them, but raising them is hard, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a women, as infant care puts a stop to your career, even if your parents say they’ll look after the kids, isn’t it too hard for them at their age? But sending them to a daycare center is also hectic, so its really true that raising kids is difficult. Then, is our country a nice place to live when you don’t have a double income? With the prices and the rent, raising kids is tough in Korea. But it’s worth living here as a DINK [Double-Income No Kids].
ats5****
Those guys born with a silver spoon in their mouth are telling us to be slaves and make babies? I will finish this circle of slavery in my generation.
skyb****
If you have a kid, you’ve got 10,000 problems. If you don’t have any you’ve got only one problem.
hdh2****
When you have kids, the most important thing is to raise them well and make sure they are successful. But if it doesn’t turn out that way they can become a nuisance. Not having kids can also be good fortune. After spending lots of money, it’s also a crap game when they graduate from university and are looking for a job, since life is hard, and it becomes completely useless after time passes by. Instead, the emptiness of not having kids can largely be compensated by the fact that you have more financial freedom. In the future if one of the two parents passes away you can just remarry. After all, life is all in vain – you come in the world with nothing and leave it with nothing. You just need to live in the least painful way.
atta****
The top 10% should make lots of babies, the lowest 50% should end their family line, and the ones in between should just do whatever they want.
trim****
It’s convenient to not have any children
byza****
Those who have wealth can just make one or two more.
civi****
While then encourage pregnancy, they are cutting the childcare subsidies by a lot… tsk tsk are they not cutting the salary of the members of the National Assembly?
warr****
Maybe if you completely remove private education and education becomes free at least up to high school… from the perspective of a person raising two kids, you can really regret it sometimes…
whqu****
Even without considering my financial status, I don’t feel the need to have a baby.
hope****
While the government makes a bunch of bad regulations and measures, there are too many things they are asking of the Korean people.
sh10****
This is so like Hell Joseon… as long as politicians and big companies act like that, will there be any change? They are trying to take advantage of good Korean people.
comt****
So what if you have a baby in your late 30’s? Raise them in your forties, get old, then help them study in your fifties, pay tuition in your sixties, and help them get a job in your seventies? It is terrifying just thinking of it. If you are going to raise a child, do it early, otherwise don’t do it at all.
lare****
Hell Joseon is really nosy about marriage and childbirth. Why do they fucking care? Annoying…
sunn****
Let’s acknowledge diversity here. There can be people who are not married, people with no kids, you don’t have to make them look weird because they are different… this is tiring.
ap13****
If you have the [financial] freedom to send your kids to a special-purpose high school, then you have babies.
