The Korean government has not been able to address adequately the issue of low birthrates among women even though it has spent more than 50 trillion won for the past eight years. It may be because the government has focused its policy too much on free child care and other quantitative measures.
According to an investigation made jointly by the Korea Economic Daily, Korea Development Institute, and Samsung Economic Research Institute, the total expenditure made by the government between 2006 and 2013 in order to boost the fertility rate among women of childbearing age has been 53 trillion won. Measures related to the low birthrate were 96 (as of the end of 2013).
The budget slated to respond to low birthrates in 2006 was 2.1 trillion won (0.24% of the GDP), which increased almost six-folds to 14.4 trillion won in 2013. Nonetheless, the total fertility rate has stayed at almost the same level (1.12 in 2006 to 1.19 in 2013). Comparing to the fertility rate of major economies such as the United States (2.01), France (2.08), and New Zealand (2.05), this is quite low.
The rate of women in their late 20s (25-29 years of age) who are not married has increased to 67.7 percent in 2010 from 30.1 percent in 2000. The ratio of women in their early 30s (30-34) who have no children has risen to 36.0 percent from 16.5 percent during the same period.
Although the government is doing everything it can to bring up the rate by introducing laws to balance work and family life by extending maternity leaves, nothing has worked so far. The government was going to organize a special committee to deal with a future low-birth aging society in May, but had to postpone it due to the ferry sinking incident.
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