The influence of housing on family size in South Korea: Unstable housing and parity specific risk

Abstract

Increasing housing cost is one of the major concerns among young parents in South Korea. The aim of this study is to evaluate how homeownership is associated with parity-specific birth. We use the 2009-2017 waves of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (n=6,934) to illustrate opt-out childbearing without the state of being a homeowner. This study uses the Cox proportional hazard model to show mutually-exclusive patterns between homeownership and childbearing. The results suggest that either short-term rent or home-ownership is negative to have a first child while only home-ownership is negative to have a second child. Also, rural areas show a slightly faster path in having a second child. The Cox proportional hazard model suggests that there is a trade-off relationship between parity-specific childbearing and housing costs intertwined with employment status and educational attainment.

Society at a Glance 2024

“…Worries about the future go beyond the economic fallout from the 2008 recession while including xenophobic responses to the refugee crisis in 2015. Euroscepticism, the rise of populism and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, all contribute to spreading a feeling of uncertainty and unpredictability that prospective parents are faced with when deciding whether to have a(nother) child (Comolli et al, 2021[54]; Joris, Puustinen and d'Haenens, 2018 [83]; Vignoli et al, 2020[78]). Furthermore, Dillarstone et al (2023 [84]) found that climate change concerns were typically associated with less positive attitudes towards reproduction and a desire and/or intent for fewer children or none at all -their systematic review was based on studies conducted between 2012 and 2022 in European countries, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.…”