South Korea’s population is set to shrink 74% by 2100, from 51.7 million to just 13.5 million. With a fertility rate of 0.75, the lowest in the world, the country faces a population collapse in future.
South Korea, world’s 13th largest economy, has seen rapid increase in income levels over past many decades. However, the future is uncertain.
As population declines, there will high fewer workers and aging population (with higher cost for healthcare, social security).
Despite govt incentives like cash bonuses, parental leave, birth rates haven’t risen much (there was a slight jump from 0.73 to 0.75 in 2024). High living costs, long work hours and traditional attitudes towards family/childcare are some of the reasons why people are avoiding having children.
The graph compares three demographics in range of ~15 years, to a group spanning across 40 years, it would be much better if the 25-64 would be split into 25-40/40-65.
finallytisdone on
More than 50% retirement age would be wild.
Rufal04 on
Someone’s been watching kurzgesagt. But yeah it’s looking bleak for them
Emevete on
I’m genuinely curious here: wouldn’t the short term economic gains from reducing productivity losses related to parenthood outweight the long term consequences of not having enough workers? Especially when we consider how fast automation is advancing, along with the big shifts happening in the labor market and in consumer behavior?
It seems like there are two almost contradictory narratives. On one hand, we hear warnings about population decline and labor shortages, and on the other, concerns about automation leading to a surplus of unneccesary both skilled and unskilled workers. So, what’s the real picture here?
im of course only talking about economics here and not oyher deeps social aspects
papapudding on
When can we expect a government to birth children from artificial wombs and raise them in state operated communes?
jaggedcanyon69 on
Kurzgesagt did a video on this.
Basically the country is fucked no matter what they do.
moreesq on
Perhaps I missed it, but I can imagine another force at work: young women want to have careers, at least for a while, so they defer either marriage or having a baby. South Korea is sexist, but their young women can make decisions within whatever scope they have.
8 Comments
South Korea’s population is set to shrink 74% by 2100, from 51.7 million to just 13.5 million. With a fertility rate of 0.75, the lowest in the world, the country faces a population collapse in future.
South Korea, world’s 13th largest economy, has seen rapid increase in income levels over past many decades. However, the future is uncertain.
As population declines, there will high fewer workers and aging population (with higher cost for healthcare, social security).
Despite govt incentives like cash bonuses, parental leave, birth rates haven’t risen much (there was a slight jump from 0.73 to 0.75 in 2024). High living costs, long work hours and traditional attitudes towards family/childcare are some of the reasons why people are avoiding having children.
[Graph Source](https://www.trendlinehq.com/p/south-korea-s-population-collapse?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=comment)
The graph compares three demographics in range of ~15 years, to a group spanning across 40 years, it would be much better if the 25-64 would be split into 25-40/40-65.
More than 50% retirement age would be wild.
Someone’s been watching kurzgesagt. But yeah it’s looking bleak for them
I’m genuinely curious here: wouldn’t the short term economic gains from reducing productivity losses related to parenthood outweight the long term consequences of not having enough workers? Especially when we consider how fast automation is advancing, along with the big shifts happening in the labor market and in consumer behavior?
It seems like there are two almost contradictory narratives. On one hand, we hear warnings about population decline and labor shortages, and on the other, concerns about automation leading to a surplus of unneccesary both skilled and unskilled workers. So, what’s the real picture here?
im of course only talking about economics here and not oyher deeps social aspects
When can we expect a government to birth children from artificial wombs and raise them in state operated communes?
Kurzgesagt did a video on this.
Basically the country is fucked no matter what they do.
Perhaps I missed it, but I can imagine another force at work: young women want to have careers, at least for a while, so they defer either marriage or having a baby. South Korea is sexist, but their young women can make decisions within whatever scope they have.