South Korea: How has it managed to reverse depopulation?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

South Korea has grappled with an unprecedented decline in birth rate over the past nine years.

However the latest figures show a slight rise in the number of babies born. Although the number remains low, the news is being welcomed with cautious optimism.

The increase follows years of pro-parent policies and heavy investment by the government and businesses.

In the first of our three-part series looking at South Korea’s low birth rate and population decline, we look into the efforts it took to achieve this turnaround, and find out how the number got so low in the first place.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Presented and produced by David Cann

(Image: A mum and child in South Korea. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and Anjankajemika. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm David Ken,
0:07.5	and today I want to take you to South Korea, where after nearly a decade of continuous fall,
0:12.4	the birth rate has finally started to increase. An unexpected turnaround that's catching global
0:17.1	attention. The number of births in South Korea has gone up slightly for the first time.
0:22.6	South Korea's birth rate is up.
0:23.6	South Korea has recorded the first increase in its fertility rate in a decade.
0:29.6	For years, the country has grappled with declining birth rate, unprecedented anywhere in the world.
0:34.6	I don't feel obligated to leave my genetic trace in this world, just because I need to, or society
0:41.0	expects me to?
0:42.1	This led to an aging population and a shrinking workforce, with fewer working people to support
0:47.0	the growing number of pensioners.
0:49.5	There just won't be enough people working to support the country.
0:52.9	The recent uptack in birth
0:54.2	rate is being welcomed as potential turning point in this demographic crisis.
1:00.3	The problem of low birth rate is an important national agenda, and the government in the private
1:05.3	sector must work together to solve this. And some private companies have jumped in.
1:11.6	In accordance with our encouragement policies, a childbirth incentive payment is being awarded.
1:18.5	Today, we'll look at what's been offered to South Koreans to encourage them to have more children
1:22.8	and find out whether it's actually working. That's all coming up on business data.
1:36.4	This is Kobe Baby Fair, being held in Kintech's Ilsan in Gyeonggido,
1:39.8	about an hour drive from the South Korean capital Seoul.
1:41.2	It's Thursday morning.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 16 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.