According to a data released by the Korea Statistics Agency, the total population of South Korea in 2021, including foreigners who have lived in South Korea for more than 3 months, is 51.738 million, 91,000 fewer than in 2020.
In fact, south Korea's population has already seen a "death cross", the number of newborns in South Korea in May this year was only 20,007, while the number of deaths in the same period reached 28,859, which is the 31st consecutive month that the number of deaths exceeded the number of births, and it is also the highest level on record in May, that is, the South Korean population has experienced a long period of negative growth, and the population is decreasing.
David Coleman, a professor of demography at Newton University, once warned that due to the continuous decline in South Korea's fertility rate, South Korea may become the first country on the planet to disappear naturally.
The Korean Population Trap
Ideally, the total fertility rate is equal to 2, that is, the average couple has two babies, then the population of this region will remain unchanged for a long time.
But there are many unexpected factors in reality, such as: some people are infertile, some children do not survive to adulthood for various reasons, which makes the total fertility rate equal to 2.1, can keep the total population of the region unchanged.
When the total fertility rate is higher than 2.1, the population of this region will increase; when the total fertility rate is less than 2.1, the population of this region will have negative growth.
What is the total fertility rate in South Korea?
According to the World Population Report 2021 released by the United Nations Population Fund, South Korea's total fertility rate is 1.1, and the 2022 World Population Report shows that South Korea's total fertility rate in 2022 is only 1.1.
That is, on average, 1 couple has 1.1 children. It is clearly below 2.1, so south Korea's population will have negative growth.
Austrian demographer Lutz once proposed a "low fertility trap", he believes that when the total fertility rate is below 1.5, the population is difficult to rise, but South Korea has been below 1.5 for many years, according to the model prediction, the future south Korean population will be less and less.
Simulation data from the Korea National Research Center in 2020 shows that the last Korean will live to 2750, after which the Koreans will disappear completely.
The small population is only the first problem facing South Korea, and the second problem is that there are fewer young people.
A spokesperson for the Korea Statistics Agency said the data showed that the number of women aged around 20-30 in South Korea was decreasing, while the number of elderly people was increasing rapidly.
The decline in young women means that the number of people who can participate in the production of offspring is decreasing, and coupled with the difficulty of changing the concept of fertility, the total fertility rate in South Korea will become lower in the future, resulting in fewer young women. Under the negative feedback effect, the population of South Korea will become smaller and smaller.
Not only that, but fewer young people also mean that there is less labor force and economic development will be limited. An aging society can also lead to many social problems that need to be solved by Koreans.
Why don't Koreans want to have children?
In fact, not only the fertility rate in South Korea has declined, young people in many countries around the world are reluctant to have children, especially the more developed countries, the lower the willingness to have children, so why is this?
Because the case of South Korea is the most typical, let's use South Korea as an example.
Over the years, many young people in South Korea have been called the "three throws and one generation", the so-called three throws, that is: giving up marriage, having children, and interpersonal relationships.
Modern times have evolved into the "five-to-throw generation", and have also abandoned employment and buying houses.
This is the same as Japan's "Heisei abandoned house", japanese economic commentator Kenichi Omae commented on the Heisei abandoned house:
Young people in the Heisei era only cared about things within a radius of 3 meters of their own circle, they had no desire to succeed, their learning ability was low, they did not know how to make progress, they immediately retreated when they encountered difficulties, and they gave up as soon as they needed to think. Heisei men will not take the initiative to assume the obligation of supporting their families and raising children, and they have adopted the method of escape, only caring about their own development.
Looking closely, this passage is actually very much in line with The Three Throw generation and the Five Throw Generation in South Korea. So why are young Koreans so decadent and reluctant to be aggressive?
In fact, this problem is very complicated, and different sociologists attribute it differently, but there are several factors that are more important.
- The promotion channel is narrowed.
The college entrance examination is also an important way for Korean class circulation, but the Korean college entrance examination is even more internal than ours, and only students admitted to Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University can get a good job.
(Children take the college entrance examination, parents pray for blessings)
Because of the limited number of famous schools, The Korean college entrance examination students are very internal, and re-reading has become the norm. However, re-reading has exacerbated the probability that fresh graduates will not be admitted to college, or will not be admitted to a good university, which will lead to the emergence of more repeat students.
In addition to universities, that is, trainees, The Korean entertainment industry is developed, and the number of trainees is relatively large. However, the Korean entertainment industry is different from the mainland entertainment industry, Korean artists are basically subject to the company, the number of trainees who can get ahead is not much, and it is a problem to even support themselves without getting ahead, and even some trainees go to the barbershop after work.
- Raising children is costly.
According to statistics, raising a child in South Korea, from the birth of the child to the graduation of the university, costs at least about 1.9 million yuan, the cost of raising children is high, and the younger generation is afraid to have children.
In the past, people raised children to prevent aging, but now the rise of nursing homes and social pension services has also made the elderly dependent, and the willingness to have children is lower.
- Women have a lower status.
In South Korea, there is a term "mother worm", which is a satire on those full-time mothers who have no income, rely on their husbands, and bring their babies at home, and also refer to the mothers of children who are loud and noisy in public.
In fact, we also have full-time mothers around us, a little to ask full-time mothers to know, with a baby is not easier than the workplace, even more tired than the workplace, after all, the workplace will pay you wages, there are working hours limits, there are weekends and holidays, and with the baby is not paid in the slightest, and there is no rest of the work.
The low status of women is not only reflected in full-time mothers, but also in workplace injustice. Women who want to achieve certain results in the workplace do not dare to have children, and having children means that the career promotion channel is narrowed, which is the reality of South Korea.
Someone once wrote a book to speak up for women, this book is "Jin Zhiying Born in 82", which was later adapted into a movie. The book depicts the hardships of stay-at-home mothers and the injustices faced by women, such as: Kim Ji-young grew up from childhood to adulthood, and when she joined the work, the class president and president were both men, and the opportunity for promotion and salary increase was left to men.
In between taking the baby, I occasionally went downstairs to drink a cup of coffee, and people said: I also want to use the money earned by my husband to buy coffee to drink, and I also go around.
It is such a book that exposes women's injustice, which has not attracted Korean reflection, but has attracted resistance from Korean men, and even threatened those who participated in the film. This shows how serious gender discrimination is in South Korea.
In this context, many women do not have the confidence that their children will be happy living in such an environment, and some people even say that they like children very much, but when they think of so many setbacks in their growth, they are reluctant to let their children come to this world.
summary
South Korea is one of the countries facing the world's worst demographic crisis, and there has even been a death crossover, that is, the number of deaths is higher than the number of births every year. If this continues, south Koreans are likely to become the first country to die out naturally in the future.
#Korea ##女人 #