Dog strollers are outselling baby prams in South Korea, a sign of the country’s shrinking birth rate.
Last year marked the first year that sales of dog strollers exceeded those of baby carriages on Gmarket, a leading South Korean online retailer, according to The Wall Street Journal.
South Korea, which has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates, recorded another drop in 2023, with the average number of expected babies per woman going to 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022. This has deepened concerns among policymakers about the long-term effects on the economy and the country’s aging population, even prompting the government to plan a new ministry tasked with reversing the trend.
The surge in pet stroller purchases is striking. Sales have quadrupled since 2019, and top-end models can sell for as much as $1,100. Yoon Hyun-shin, CEO of Pet Friends, South Korea’s largest online pet-shopping platform, told the Journal that pet ownership has become a major trend.
“Pet ownership is rising, and so is spending on pets as people choose them over children,” Yoon said.
A Pomeranian sits in a dog’s wheeled carriage in Flanders, Belgium, on May 22, 2023. A South Korean online retailer says dog stroller sales surpassed baby prams in South Korea for the first time last year.
Thierry Hebbelinck/Getty Images
“What I worry about is young people not loving each other,” South Korea’s labor minister, Kim Moon-soo, said in 2023. “Instead, they love their dogs and carry them around. They don’t get married, and they don’t have children.”
The South Korean Embassy in the U.S. was contacted by Newsweek by email for comment.
To combat the declining birth rate, the South Korean government has allocated nearly $300 billion to various incentives, such as child care subsidies and direct cash payments to families with children. Some local governments even offer up to $70,000 per baby as part of these pro-natal initiatives.
Other efforts have included creative initiatives, like matchmaking events with cash prizes for couples who meet and form relationships, as well as policies designed to shorten commutes and improve work-life balance.
However, these measures have yet to yield much fruit. Many younger South Koreans face substantial barriers to starting families, particularly in the capital, Seoul, where housing costs are notoriously high. Cultural shifts have also led to a decline in the urge among South Korean millennials and members of Generation Z to marry and have children.
“Younger South Koreans are spending more than their predecessors rather than saving. They are working on their own emblems of success online rather than focusing on the impossible goals of settling down and having children,” sociology professor Jung Jae-hoon of Seoul Women’s University told Reuters.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called the birth rate crisis a “national emergency” and recently appointed a Cabinet-level secretary to oversee efforts to reverse the trend.
Yoon himself does not have children but is an avid pet owner, along with first lady Kim Keon Hee. Together, they care for over 10 cats and dogs, according to the Journal, further reflecting the country’s growing focus on pets over children.
South Korea’s fertility challenges are mirrored in neighboring East Asian countries like Japan, China and Taiwan, which have similarly low fertility rates of 1.26, 1.0 and 0.85, respectively. These countries are also struggling to reverse the declining birth rates as they introduce various pro-natal policies.
