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Aging of South Korea

Overview of aging in South Korea

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Through Ageing, Old age and Fertility

Lab · Class 6–12Sociology: Individual & Society

Aging is often caused by the dramatic improvement of living standards derived from the development of science and medicine, increasing the life expectancy of the average individual; however, a decrease in birth rates can be a major contributor. South Korea's birth rate has declined since 1960, becoming a prominent issue within the country.

Until the 1980s, it was widely believed that the South Korean demographic trend would end and that the population would eventually stabilize, but birth rates continued to decrease. In 2021, this culminated in South Korea experiencing a natural population decline for the first time in its history.

Analysts state that South Korea's current low birth rates are caused by the country's high economic inequality, including the high cost of living, low wages for an OECD member country, lack of job opportunities, as well as rising housing unaffordability.

South Korea's portion of the elderly population is projected to grow at the fastest pace in the world, from 14.9 percent in 2019 to 46.5 percent in 2067. Consequently, this will lead to South Korea's population declining sharply within the next few decades to about 25–30 million, down from 51 million as of 2022.

View source data. View source data.

Causes

The main cause of South Korea's aging is low fertility. Decreased fertility rates tend to be caused by lower marriage rates, more delayed marriages, and increased age of parents. Existing research suggests that economic factors such as income, labor market conditions, as well as socio-cultural factors – including changes in the values of education and gender roles, and family and health policy – are the main causes of lower fertility rates.

Fertility

Unlike countries in Europe where fertility rates naturally fell below the level of population replacement due to industrialization and socio-cultural factors, Korea's birth rates fell sharply due to birth control policies. Korea's birth control policy began in the 1960s and ended in the mid-1990s when birth rates fell significantly below the level of population replacement. As a result, Korea's fertility rate declined by about half from the end of the 1970s (2.90 births/woman) to 1.56 births/woman at the end of the 1980s. In the 2000s, when low birth rates started to become a problem, the government tried to alter policy to increase it, but the birth rate still declined at a more rapid rate than any other country.

On the other hand, the Korean population tends to have more males than females due to the traditional preference for male babies. Other developed nations with a more balanced sex ratio have had less population degrowth. This suggests that if the South Korean preference for male babies is weakened, balancing the gender ratio, the negative effect on the birth rate may be removed.

The South Korean fertility rate of 1.8 children per woman was below the OECD average fertility rate of 2 children per woman in 1984 and has remained below average since then. In 2018, the total fertility rate in South Korea declined to 0.98. In order to maintain a population of 50 million, the fertility rate would need to match the replacement level of 2.1. Among OECD countries, Korea was the only country whose fertility rate declined below 1.

The number of newborn babies declined 8.6% from 2017 to 2018, becoming the lowest birth rate for South Korea. In 2022, the fertility rate declined further to 0.81. Sejong City is the only area where the population is expected to increase.

Causes of fertility decline

Government policy

After the post-World War II baby boom led to a drastic population increase, the South Korean government implemented an anti-natalistic policy in the 1960s. The National Family Planning program created by the Park Chung Hee government was done so as a modernization effort that wanted to transform rural life through social science and international collaboration. Although the program did in fact cause this transformation, historians state that population concerns in Korea developed much earlier than this narrative says it does. Debates about population and social reform predated the Park administration and even the founding of the Republic of Korea itself. Korean scholars and reformers had already been discussing rural transformation and early forms of population control as far back as the early 1930s, so the policies of the 1960s built upon ideas and discussions that had existed for decades. This government program mandated that South Korean healthcare centers provide a family planning consultation by introducing traditional contraception methods, including intrauterine devices, vasectomies, and condoms to the public.

Sex preference

In the twentieth century, selective abortion of female fetuses had an important impact on the low birth rate. In Korea, there was a strong sex preference for a son because of a focus on the preservation of the family name.

From 1981 to 1988, the sex ratio at birth continued to increase to about 116.55 males to 100 females in the early 1990s. The natural human sex ratio at birth is around 105 males to 100 females, so anything higher indicates sex-selective abortion. Despite sex-selective abortion being illegal, the number of prospective parents aborting female fetuses after checking the sex increased. As a result, in 1988, the government banned doctors from revealing the sex of a fetus to expecting parents.

Education cost

Koreans prioritize their children's education, which is in alignment with their Confucian values that emphasize the relationship between higher education and socioeconomic status. Some Korean citizens send their children to expensive hagwon, for-profit after-school educational institutes, in the hope that their children achieve the high results required to enter a prestigious university. In 2009, more than 75% of South Korean children attended private academies.

The hagwon curriculum emphasizes English, math, and writing because of the competitiveness of entering the nation's top three universities: Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University (collectively known as SKY). In Korean society, sending children to hagwon became a social norm to the point that those who cannot afford to send their children to hagwon are regarded by others as irresponsible and ignorant parents.

In 2005, a national survey revealed that 18.2% of women aged 20 to 29 years chose not to have a second child because of the cost of extra education. Parents prefer no more than one or two children to focus on each child's success with the less financial burden. According to a survey by the Health Ministry in 2012, 90% of people who participated in the survey stated that they are reluctant to have children because of high education cost, including private education fees.

Society of extreme competition

Korea, like other East Asian countries, has a society with much competition and demands on individuals (from an early age at school and later in the workplace). Long working hours and constant social pressure for excellence generate stress and fear of failure among people, especially young people (this may also explain why Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world). As a result, many Koreans choose not to have children and sometimes even to remain single. And most married couples wish to have only one child to devote more means and energy to the educational and professional success of that one child.

Female labor force

As the economy has developed, more South Korean women have entered university, resulting in a growth in the female workforce. More women have postponed marriage and pursued improvement of their standard of living rather than having children. From 1985 to 2007, the average age at which a South Korean woman first married increased from 24.1 years to 28.1 years. Moreover, the female college enrollment rate also increased from 31.3% in 1990 to 83.8% in 2008. As the percent of women working outside the home increased from 42.8% in 1980 to 50.2% in 2005, the birth rate also decreased from 6.0 children per woman in 1960 to 1.13 per woman in 2006.

Increased divorce rate

The divorce rate increased by 70% from 1970 to 2000 in South Korea. Divorce is the most significant event that affects family dissolution, which results in a low fertility rate. Even though divorce affected birth rate slightly overall from 1970 to 2000, after the economic crisis in 1997, the rapid increase in the divorce rate affected the decrease in the birth rate. This rise in divorce shows social changes in South Korea where ideas about family and marriage had already been shifting for decades before the crisis. Earlier population policies and social pressures encouraged keeping families small and placed new expectations on people, which, over time, made traditional family structures less stable.

In the economic crisis, many families were dissolved as they could not afford to support their family members. The crude divorce rate (divorces per 1,000 population) increased to 2 in 1997 and rose rapidly to 2.5 in the following year. In 2003, the crude divorce rate jumped again to 3.5.

Longevity

In the first half of the 1950s, life expectancy was only 42 years on average (37 for men, 47 for women). South Korea now has one of the highest life expectancies, ranking 15th in the world. The average baby born in South Korea today can expect to live to 82 years (79 for men and 85 for women). In contrast, the global average is 72 years (70 for men, 74 for women).

The UN projects life expectancy will continue to improve; by 2100, the average baby born in South Korea will live to the age of 92 (89 for men, and 95 for women). A separate study published in The Lancet showed that women in South Korea are projected to be the first in the world to have an average life expectancy above 90 – with the researchers predicting a 57% chance this will happen by 2030.

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