Low Fertility and Policy Responses in Korea

I. Trends in Fertility During the 1950s, baby boom-fueled explosive population growth had been eating into the poor basis of economic growth, working as a major cause of the vicious cycle of poverty. Therefore, the Korean government adopted the anti-natal policy and initiated a strong family planning program in the early 1960s when Korea’s economic development began to step up. As the family planning program began reaping its benefits and socioeconomic changes came into being, including the increase in the standard of livings in the wake of rapid economic growth and better and wider education, the traditional value on high fertility began to wane. As a result, the total fertility rate (TFR) dropped sharply from 6.00 in 1960. The TFR already equal to the population replacement level in 1983, Thereafter, an phenomenon of low fertility under TFR of 2.1 has lasted in Korea. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the TFR with some irregularities maintained around 1.6 level. However, after this period Korea’s TFR declined rapidly as the country struggled through the financial crisis in 1997, below 1.2 in the 2000s (especially 1.08 in 2005), the lowest in the world. The number of children per year was over 1 million during the period from 1960 to 1971 but decreased to below half a million since 2002. II. Causes of Fertility Change in Korea A. Demographic factors Demographically, fertility is determined by two factors, female’s age at first marriage (FAFM) and fertility rate of married women(marital fertility rate, MFR). The female’s age at first marriage was 24.1 years in 1985 but soared-up to 28.1 years in 2007, along with rise in rate of female enrollment in university (FUER) and female labor force participation rate (FLPR). The rate of female enrollment in university increased from 31.3 percent in 1990 to 83.8 percent in 2008. The female labor force participation rate increased from 47.0 percent in 1990 to 50.1 percent in 2007 (42.6 to 68.0 percent for 25~29 age group and 49.5 to 53.6 percent for 30~34 age group, which are in the main age span for first marriage and childbearing). Since most births still come from legally married couples in Korea (98.5 percent as of 2007), the prolonging of age at first marriage has played a role in decreasing fertility level through curtailing the childbearing span and increasing infertility. The marital fertility rate shows a decreasing trend in most age groups with some recent exceptions at older age groups. For example, the MFR of age 20~24 continued to decrease from 460 per thousand married women in 1970 to 259 in 2004. The MFR of 25~29 was 362 in 1970, which decreased up to the mid-1980s. MFR, with a shortperiod increase, again turned to decrease since the