The fertility rate in South Korea saw a small upward bump this year after almost a decade of decline, providing cautious optimism to officials hoping to save the collapsing population.
The government attributes the reversal to a shift in perceptions surrounding family institutions among people of procreating age.
“There was a change in social value, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth,” said Statistics Korea official Park Hyun-jung.
He continued, “It is difficult to measure how much each factor contributed to the rise in new births, but they themselves had an impact on each other, too.”
The government recorded approximately 238,300 births nationwide last year, a modest increase from the 230,000 births recorded in the year prior. It is the first upward blip in the country’s fertility rate in nine years.
The country suffers one of the lowest population replacement rates in the world due to financial, social, and logistical challenges posed by child-rearing.
The data provides some hope for South Koreans concerned about the complete disintegration of their society due to a rapidly aging population that is growing more burdensome for each shrinking generation of youth, but South Korea is far from out of the woods.
Last year’s birthrate is still far short of the approximately 600,000 births recorded annually throughout the 1990’s.
But Joo Hyung-hwan, vice chair of the Presidential Committee on an Aging Society and Population Policy, called the uptick “an important step in reversing the long-standing trend of the country’s low birth rates, which suggests that government policies have begun to have an effect and increasingly resonate with the public.”
Whether or not South Korea can maintain this reversal and continue to grow its population will be valuable data for conservative governments around the world seeking to bolster their own domestic fertility rates and phase out immigration as a source of population augmentation.
“Our society has failed to recognize the obligation that one generation has to another is a core part of living in a society to begin with. So let me say, very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vice President JD Vance said at the 2025 March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., just days after being sworn in.
Vance is spearheading a loose movement in the White House aimed at re-dignifying the family and child-rearing in American society. He has proposed bumping the child tax credit by 150%, which would provide $5,000 in support to new parents for each child born.
Similar policies and other incentive structures have already been rolled out in South Korea, including workplace regulations that force companies to accommodate couples seeking to have children.
In Europe, Hungary is the nation currently leading the charge for family-focused policy.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government offers lifetime income-tax exemptions for mothers who give birth to four or more children.
Couples seeking to start a family can also solicit certain low-interest home loans from the Hungarian government that are reduced or dissolved after they meet a quota for children.
