(LifeSiteNews) — Finally, some good news: In 2024, South Korea’s birthrate increased for the first time in a decade. 238,300 babies were born, 8,300 more than the previous year. According to Statistics Korea, this is a small but important spike from a fertility rate of 0.72 children per woman in 2023 to 0.75 children per woman in 2024, following eight straight years of decline from 1.24 in 2015. While birthrates are plummeting in nearly all the developed countries, South Korea has achieved the distinction of having the lowest birthrate in the world.
The population replacement birthrate is 2.1. If pre-2024 trends hold, South Korea’s population of 51 million is on track to be cut in half by the end of the century.
The spike was not accidental. South Korea’s government has been trying desperately to address the demographic collapse, most recently with a slate of pro-marriage policies that emphasized childcare, housing, and work-family balance. In 2024, the (now-impeached) President Yoon Suk-yeol had proposed an entire new ministry to deal with the “national demographic crisis.” Pro-family policies included 100 percent paid parental leave for six months (up from three), with the maximum period raised to 1.5 years, if both mother and father take parental leave.
Additionally, the South Korean government is pushing businesses to create family-friendly employment as well. In 2025, it will become mandatory for companies to detail statistics related to childcare in their “regulatory filings,” with smaller businesses becoming eligible for government support. According to Al Jazeera, South Korea plans to spend a whopping $13.7 billion on pro-family policies in 2025, up a full 22 percent from 2024.
Thus far, it appears the policies are having some effect – the marriage rate rose 14.9 percent in 2024, although this is partially due to a surge in weddings delayed by the pandemic. This mini-baby “boom” is due to the rise in couples tying the knot. The Korea Times reported in 2024 that 65 percent of single Koreans now say that they want to get married.
“There was a change in social value, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth,” stated Park Hyung-jung, an official with Statistics Korea, at a news briefing. “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.” According to Semafor, the “policy efforts to incentivize companies and [get] Koreans to embrace parenthood started to pay off.” The reasons for the plummeting birthrate – women opting for career over marriage and children and rising costs across the board – can be addressed, at least to some extent.
It is mindboggling that developing countries grappling with demographic collapse have not yet moved to recognize human rights for the youngest human beings in their nations: Unborn babies. Abortion was decriminalized in South Korea in January of 2021, and although the abortion rate is thankfully declining, the available data indicates that over two million babies were aborted in South Korea over the past two decades. In 2008 alone, according to South Korean government statistics, there was a staggering 241,111 abortions (it was over 300,000 in 2005); that has dropped significantly to 32,063 in 2020, the last year for which data is available.
To sum up: The South Korean government is spending billions of dollars to boost the birthrate, while permitting a violent procedure that destroys tens of thousands of babies in the womb each year. They are celebrating – and rightly so! – that 8,300 more babies were born in 2024 than in 2023. But by the best estimates, well over double that number were also killed before they were born. If South Korea – or any other nation desperately in need of children – wants to get serious about demographic collapse, the only viable answer is a simple one: Protecting babies in the womb.
