By Enyichukwu Enemanna
President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday hinted that his government is considering creating a new ministry to address the country’s low birthrate.
The country which has the world’s lowest birth rate, is facing a looming demographic crisis.
“I ask the parliament’s cooperation to revise government organisation to set up the Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter Planning,” President Yeol said in a live address to the nation.
Official data shows that South Korea’s birth rate fell to a record low last year, despite having spent billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.
The country has one of the world’s longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates, a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge.
According to preliminary data from Statistics Korea in February, South Korea’s fertility rate – the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime – dropped to 0.72 in 2023, down nearly eight percent from 2022.
This is far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain the current population of 51 million, which at these rates will nearly halve by the year 2100, experts estimate.
South Korea’s 0.72 birth rate is the lowest among OECD nations, while the average age to give birth is 33.6, the highest in the OECD.
It comes despite the government having spent vast amounts to encourage more babies, including cash subsidies, babysitting services and support for infertility treatment.
But the birth rate has continued its chronic decline.
Heritage Times HT reports that in far away West Africa, population explosion has continued to be a challenge as governments battle to provide infrastructure.
In Benue state, North Central Nigeria, the Ortese Internally Displaced Persons camp in Guma Local Government Area, recorded 200 new child births on one month.
This was part of the findings of the Integrated Supportive Supervision, ISS, of the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Health Organization, UNICEF/WHO Humanitarian Health Response (IDP) Outreach implemented by the Benue State Primary Healthcare Board.
Emergency response agencies attributed the figure to the fact that most of the internally-displaced persons stayed with their partners in the camps.
