To select English subtitles, click on the Settings icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, click on the option labeled "subtitles/CC, and choose English.

Video Description

Type: KIHASA Policy Featurette

Topic: How Did Korea End Up with Ultra-Low Birth Rates?

Guest Speaker: Yoo Sam-hyun, Professor of Sociology, Hanyang University

Transcript

News Anchor:

Korea's birth rate ranked the lowest among OECD member countries. 

Korea has recorded the lowest total fertility rate for ten consecutive years.

Narration:

South Korea's birth rate continues to decline. Since 2001, its total fertility rate has remained below 1.3, marking a prolonged period of so-called "ultra-low birth rates."

Yoo:

Since the 1980s, women's increased access to higher education and greater participation in the labor market have led to later marriage and childbirth, resulting in a lower birth rate. From the late 1990s onwards, the timing of first and second births shifted further back. More recent studies show that, by the 2010s, especially in the latter half of the decade, the overall marriage rate began to decline. Even among those who did get married, the tendency was, more and more people chose to have children later―or not at all.