Financial Burden Urges Young South Koreans To Defer Having Children

Even though South Korea has become one of the richest nations in Asia, its citizens still feel burdened of bearing children due to financial reasons. The drag in the age where women bear children in the country has then unsurprisingly become the world's oldest.

As to date, the source noted that one in every three Koreans in their 20s and two out of three in their 30s have no plans for having children, according to a recent survey conducted by Statistics Korea and the Korea Women's Development Institute.

More than half of those in their 20s stated lack of financial support for their potential children is the reason for them to not get pregnant.

A total of 5,018 households in 2015 took part in the survey at the request of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The said research is being done every five years starting 2005, Korea Times wrote.

The state plays some role in the birth rate in the country as 37.5 percent of 20-somethings and 33.2 percent of 30-somethings revealed that they would choose to have children if they earn the support for the bearing and rearing of their children.

"The government will cooperate with other agencies to raise the birthrate by, for instance, lessening costs for housing and childcare as well as helping them maintain the balance between work and family," said Kang Eun-hee, minister of Gender Qquality and Family.

The government is presently in a battle to raise the birth rate in the country as it rivals Japan in becoming a rapidly ageing population.

However, convincing South Korean women to become mothers by financial support to childcare alone would be difficult in a tightly-conservative society where single motherhood connotes negative prejudice. A child born out of wedlock is considered a shame in the bloodline.

This dates to the Korean War in the 1950s where children who were born from foreign servicemen and South Korean women were either abandoned in the streets or sent for adoption in other countries, as written by The Economist.

A couple living together before marriage in South Korea is virtually unheard of. In addition, the wedding costs, if they would ever plan to get married, also rose to $228,500 this year, for starters.

The administration revealed their plan to change the perception to various family forms, as reported by Today Online News.

Single parents would be backed by the government in hopes that the attitude of getting abortion or leaving children in the orphanage would be lessened.