Tag: population decline

population decline

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Korea's debt per capita to top 30 million won by 2028

National debt per capita is projected to exceed 30 million won ($22,300) in 2028 as spending rises despite a semiconductor-driven tax windfall.

2026.9.8

Park Sung-woo, director general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Rural Policy Bureau, announces the selection results for the pilot rural basic income project at the Government Complex Sejong in Sejong on Oct. 20. [NEWS1]

Gov't basic income program for rural towns draws fire over fairness, financial concerns

The government’s plan to introduce a basic income program for rural communities is drawing controversy, as critics question the fairness of distributing equal payments to all residents while many local governments face financial strain.

2025.10.21

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A nursery room at a hospital in Seoul in 2019. Declining fertility rate has been a major concern in Korean society. [YONHAP]

Former minister mulled as new head of presidential committee on birthrates

The leadership change in the Presidential Committee of Aging Society and Population Policy is seen as a significant overhaul pushed by the president's office to foster a more assertive approach to addressing the ongoing fertility crisis.

2024.1.30

Older adults stand in line at Tapgol Park in Jongno, downtown Seoul, to receive free meals on Wednesday. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, over 6.3 million people were 70 or older as of last year, the first time septuagenarians have outnumbered people in their 20s. The population fell by 113,000 last year to 51.3 million. Korea's population has been shrinking for four consecutive years. The country is now a step closer to a super-aged society, as 19 percent of the population is 65 or older. A society is considered super-aged when that age group accounts for 20 percent of the population. [YONHAP]

Rise of the septuagenarians

According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, over 6.3 million people were 70 or older as of last year, the first time septuagenarians have outnumbered people in their 20s.

2024.1.10

A first-grade classroom in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on March 2 [YONHAP]

Government to cut recruitment of new teachers

The number of newly recruited elementary and middle school teachers will be slashed by more than a quarter over the next four years in response to the country’s shrinking student population, the Ministry of Education said Monday.

2023.4.24

A medical team moving in a Covid-19 patient in critical condition at a hospital in Seoul in March. [YONHAP]

March was Korea's cruelest month with 44,487 deaths

More than 40,000 people died in Korea in March, a monthly record.

2022.5.25

High school students line up at a job fair held in Duksoo High School in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul in October. [NEWS1]

More millennials likely to decide against having kids after Covid

Three years after getting married, an office worker says she still has no plans to have a child. The 33-year-old said she doesn’t want her children to suffer from chronic social issues such as serious income inequality and high property prices.

2021.3.7

A newborn nursery at a hospital in Seoul in February 2019. [YONHAP]

Monthly births hit an all-time low in November 2020

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, in Nhttps://ijam.joins.net/resources/image_onln_path/2021/01/27/dc246a46-1d51-4f72-804b-caf97ca47520.jpgovember 20,085 newborns were reported, which is a 15.3 percent decline year-on-year, or 3,642 fewer.

2021.1.27

Korea as of Dec. 31, 2020, has experienced the first decline in its registered population on a yearly basis. The country has the lowest fertility rate in the world. [YONHAP]

Korea marks first-ever decline in registered population

Korea’s registered population dropped some 20,000 in 2020, marking the first-ever annual fall, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on Sunday. Korea’s registered population on the last day of 2020 amounted to 51,829,023, just 20,838...

2021.1.3

Employees disinfect a wedding hall in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 19. Korea's number of marriages sharply declined in July due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic. [NEWS1]

Covid-19 sees marriage, births fall as divorce, death rises

The number of newlyweds in Korea has been on the decline as the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic forces couples to postpone wedding plans and limits dating.

2020.9.23