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Why is Korea’s birth rate, once the lowest, now inching up?

Published: 05 Sep. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 05 Sep. 2025, 15:10

JIN MIN-JI
[email protected]

The newborn at a hospital in Gangseo District, eastern Seoul, on Feb. 26. [JOONGANG ILBO]

[BEHIND THE NUMBERS]

Every morning, Ha, a 34-year-old banker, drops her two children off at daycare by 9 a.m. She then heads home to tidy up the house and, twice a week, fits in a workout before starting her four-hour work shift from 12 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., including a 30-minute break.

As an employee at a major commercial bank, Ha is using a one-year flexible work option available to parents — a convenience that helps her juggle parenting and career more smoothly. The salary cut due to shorter work hours is partially reimbursed by the state subsidy, she says.

“The child care system at the company is such a lifesaver,” said Ha, who returned to work in June after four years of maternity leave. “Without the support, I honestly might have quit my job.”

Such a routine would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, when long work hours were the norm. But Korea’s desperate efforts to tackle one of the world’s lowest birth rates are beginning to show modest signs of progress.

After eight consecutive years of decline, the number of expected children per woman rose to 0.75 last year from the record low of 0.72 the year before. Experts forecast the fertility rate to reach roughly 0.8 in 2025 in line with an increase in the number of expectant mothers, estimated at 304,000 — the highest since 327,000 in 2018.

Amid growing employee benefits for parents, more women are returning to work after giving birth.

The employment rate of married women aged between 15 through 54 with children under the age of 18 reached 62.4 percent in April last year — up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year and the highest since data collection began in 2016.

Government offices and corporations embracing family-friendly policies, as well as a temporary expansion of the population in the prime childbearing years — between 30 and 34 — drove the recent fertility rate rebound, according to Hong Sok-chul, Professor of Economics at Seoul National University.

“But for the fertility rebound to become a lasting trend, more comprehensive policies are needed to tackle underlying issues, which include rigid employment systems that make work-life balance challenging,” said Hong.

Making it easier to raise a family

To promote child care benefits, corporate executives are personally reaching out to the families of employees with newborns.

In April, Kolmar Vice Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun visited the home of an employee who had triplets, delivering gifts such as a 40 million won ($29,000) childbirth grant and three infant car seats. It was part of the corporate effort to ramp up the fertility of its employees. The company provides a 10 million won birth incentive to its employees' first and second child, and 20 million won to the third child.

A slew of companies have taken similar measures.

Last year, construction giant Booyoung Group announced its plan to provide employees with 100 million won per birth to help boost the fertility rate. It was the first time a Korean company gave such a high fertility incentive in cash to its workers.

In February, game developer Krafton announced its childbirth incentive of up to 100 million won to its employees — 60 million won upfront and 40 million paid out annually until the child turns eight.

Banks have also joined the trend, with Shinhan Bank now offering 10 million won for an employee’s first child, 20 million won for the second, and 30 million won for the third and any subsequent children. This marks a significant increase from the previous amounts of 1.2 million won for the first child, 2 million won for the second, and 3 million won for the third.

Other benefits observed at different companies include free daycare services and infertility treatment leave, contributing to a sharp increase in the total number of individuals who benefit from work-parenting balance support programs, like parental leave.

The expansion of these benefits has led more people to feel optimistic toward having children, with the number of people who benefited from such programs reaching 257,000 in 2024, up 7.2 percent from the previous year.

Cho, a 32-year-old investor relations specialist at a major advertising company, says employee benefits for parents have significantly improved over the past couple of years.

At Cho’s company, paternity leave has been extended from two weeks to 20 days, and it also offers up to one year of unpaid leave for parents undergoing infertility treatment. As a newlywed couple, that makes her feel confident about starting a family with her husband, she says.

The government has also expanded support for families in recent years.

Starting this year, the cap on parental leave benefits has been raised from 1.5 million won to 2.5 million won per month. Additionally, the government introduced special housing loan programs for families with newborns, offering up to 400 million won at interest rates as low as around 1 percent, and encouraged shared parenting by providing larger subsidies to couples where both parents take parental leave.

"Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Joong Keun poses for a photo at the company's headquarters in central Seoul with the family of an employee who recently gave birth, after providing a 100 million won childbirth incentive. [YONHAP]

Structural reforms beyond cash incentives

For the rebound in the fertility rate to become a lasting trend, experts say there must be comprehensive policies — not limited to financial subsidies — that address the underlying factors deterring childbirth.

“While the subsidies are not insignificant, they’re not substantial enough to influence people’s decisions about having children either,” said Lee Sang-rim, Chief Researcher at the Seoul National University Population Policy Research Center.

As of 2023, the average monthly cost of raising a child was 1,437,900 won for infants under one- year-old and 1,459,300 won for one-year-olds, according to a study by the state-run think tank Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.

“Instead of simply focusing on immediate subsidies, those funds should be directed toward efforts that build social consensus around addressing the root causes of the financial and psychological burdens people feel from child-rearing,” Lee added.

He emphasized the need for education reform by changing the university admission system to reduce reliance on private cram schools, dispersing housing demand currently concentrated in the Greater Seoul area by increasing government investment in smaller regional cities, and promoting flexible work systems that support work-life balance.

According to a survey on perceptions of marriage, childbirth and parenting, 22.8 percent of the 2,000 respondents aged 25 to 49 said they had no intention of getting married.

Among them, the most common reason cited by men was financial pressure — including the cost of a wedding and securing housing. For women, the main reason was the burdens often associated with marriage, such as childbirth and child-rearing.

The survey was conducted by the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy last year.

Kolmar Vice Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun, far right, at the home of an employee who had triplets. He delivered gifts, including a 40 million won childbirth grant and three infant car seats. [KOLMAR]

Fewer young adults, fewer births

Long-term, effective policy measures are becoming increasingly urgent as the young population rapidly declines. While a relatively large population of people aged 30 to 34 drove the latest childbirth rebound, the population in that age group is expected to significantly drop in the coming years.

People currently in the age group were born between 1991 and 1995, a period when over 700,000 babies were born each year. That’s more than the roughly 600,000 annual births recorded five years before and after that cohort.

Births declined throughout the early 2000s, dropping from 640,000 in 2000 to 560,000 the following year, and then falling further to 500,000. This smaller birth cohort is expected to impact the number of newborns once they reach their prime childbearing years around 2030.

“When that time arrives, even if the fertility rate rises, the base population of women having children will shrink," said Professor Hong from Seoul National University. “So, by then, the total number of births could decline — despite an increase in the fertility rate.”

"For the total fertility rate to surpass 1.0, it's not enough to simply have policies that reduce the financial burden — we also need to significantly elevate the perceived value of marriage, childbirth and especially raising children, as well as the value of family itself. Only then can policies become truly effective and lead to a meaningful rise in the birthrate," he added.

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]