Rising Fertility Crisis

Even as the global population continues to rise, countries like South Korea and Japan are some well-known cases of having the lowest child-to-population ratio. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)’s latest State of World Population Report, entitled “The real fertility crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world,” has uncovered the various reasons behind it.  The UN agency had conducted a study on a total of 14,000 participants from four countries in Europe, four in Asia, three in Africa and three in the Americas. 

The report highlights that the birth rates are not plummeting because of fertility issues or a lack of desire for having children. Rather, the constraints are mainly structural. Financial limitations, gender inequality and lack of quality health care have been pointed to as the core reasons. Raising children is an expensive affair today. As compared to older times, parents now hold the responsibility to help holistically develop their children. 

Besides these expenses, rising living costs and housing prices are significant, putting excessive financial strain on individuals. Likewise, growing global conflicts and the absence of a suitable partner have also prevented many from stopping their plan for having children. Thirty-nine per cent of participants in the survey pointed out financial limitations as a key factor behind their decision not to have children. Likewise, 21 and 19 per cent of participants pointed to job security and fear of war as their reasons, respectively. 

According to the report, the fertility rate has declined below 2.1 births per woman in half of the countries that took part in the survey. The threshold of 2.1 births is considered necessary to stabilise a country’s population without immigration. Although this trend is evident, there is a continued increase in life expectancy, thanks to the advancement in medicine and health care.

The report provides certain recommendations for countries to help increase their birth rate. And they do not entail policies that are regarded to be simplistic and forceful for people. UNFPA states that the governments should work on dismantling those barriers that their citizens identify to be stopping them from making choices about children. This includes making parenthood more affordable for people by investing in housing, providing extensive reproductive health services, assuring decent employment opportunities and providing paid parental leave. 

South Korea’s recent birth rate has rebounded by 7.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 as compared to statistics from the same period last year.  The South Korean government has spent significantly on projects concerning child rearing subsidies and launched “Birth Support Projects”. The Seoul Metropolis came up with innovative solutions like arranging events focused on blind dating on Valentine’s Day this year.  

These efforts come in line with the UNFPA recommendations, yet they are not enough. A news report from Al Jazeera on South Korea’s plummeting birth rate has shown that the population will shrink to 36.22 million by 2072. This projection is quite alarming.

Countries must understand their people’s needs and tailor programmes accordingly in view of the challenging scenario. Given the growing aging population, countries with plummeting birth rates need to maintain a young population to ensure that their economic growth does not stagnate. Adequate resources will have to be invested in the ‘right place’ immediately for this.