worldwide, falling to a record low of 0.78 births per woman in 2022. Like many other countries, South Korea has been struggling the demographic imbalance of a
and an increasing older one. The total number of births in the country has dropped by over 61 percent since 2000. Simultaneously, the
has also risen, having increased by over three years to 33.4 years in under two decades.
South Korea’s high-intensity labor market clashes with motherhood
In a 2021 survey, only around 56 percent of employees reported that
maternal leave was freely available at their workplaces, with a further 26 percent stating it was available but discouraged. The most common reason for this was that taking leave would increase the work burden for their coworkers. Consequently, less than 10 percent of pregnant workers took maternity leave, while only slightly more took childcare leave. Meanwhile, about 43 percent of
married women who left the workforce in 2022 did so in order to parent their children, while 23 percent left due to pregnancy or birth. Due to a combination of economic pressure and insufficient support for mothers in the workforce, a significant share of women face the difficult decision of choosing between having children and having a career.
Childcare facilities in South Korea
In 2022, around 1.1 million children were registered in one of the 31 thousand
daycare centers across South Korea. Both figures have declined in recent years as birth rates continued to shrink. Most childcare institutions were either private or public, with the former being the most commonly attended form of childcare. While
some workplaces offered on-site childcare, the vast majority did not. While daycare centers offered essential support, many Korean parents still relied on various other
sources for childcare in 2023, especially for young children under the age of three years.
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