The Lowest-Low Fertility and Education Problems in Korea

Abstract

e birth rate in Korea in the 1960s was higher than that of any other country in the world; however, it has dropped to being the lowest in the world in 2020. To overcome this serious situation, the South Korean government has promoted various birth encouragement policies, although the prospects and e ectiveness of these policies are questionable. Among the various factors that have led to the declining birthrate in South Korea, the most signi cant is the economic factor, especially the IMF economic crisis of the late 1990s. Many studies have concluded that the problem of excessive expenses pertaining to private education in uences a couple s willingness to have children. However, excessive private education expenditure is complicated by multiple factors such as continuing education fever, educational policies that a ect educational competition, such as high school ranking, and a remarkable wage gap in the labor market. erefore, from the perspective of education it is important to reduce the burden on private education by dropping the ranking system, which has the e ect of placing schools in a hierarchy.