A South Korean city district is aiming to tackle the declining birth rate in the country by paying its citizens to start a relationship and have children, the Korean Times reported.
The Saha-gu district office in Busan is planning a matchmaking event in October, and offering 1 million won ($750) to people who start dating as a result, according to the Korean Times.
“This project is designed to overcome the demographic crisis amid South Korea’s low birth rate by forming a multicultural local community in the future,” said district head Lee Gap-jun, according to Asian-American news site NextShark.
The district will hold the blind-date event for “single Korean and foreign men and women” between the ages of 23 and 43 who live or work in the area, the Korean Times reported. If a couple lasts and starts preparing for a wedding, including meeting each other’s families, each of them receives an additional $1,490.
Once the couple gets married, the district council will give them another $14,900. Newlyweds can also receive $22,350 for a deposit on a house or rental support for the next five years which can be up to $600, according to New Zealand Herald.
South Korea’s birth rate has continuously declined, hitting 0.72 births per woman in 2023, Newsweek previously reported. According to Statista, a country needs at least 2.1 births per woman to keep the population steadily growing.
Seoul Women’s University sociology professor Jung Jae-hoon told Reuters that South Koreans now choose to spend more money on themselves rather than start a family.
They are also the leaders in money expenditure on luxury goods in the world with $325 per capita spent on these items. In comparison, in neighboring Japan, it is only $210 per capita and $280 per capita in the U.S., according to a 2023 poll by financial services provider Morgan Stanley.
This picture taken on June 2, 2023 shows lawmaker Yong Hye-in walking with her two-year-old son Bak Dan after an interview with AFP in her office at the National Assembly in Seoul, in a country with the world’s lowest birth rate. South Korean district prepares an event to pay citizens to start a relationship and a family.
Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images
The Guardian reported in 2022 that the country has seen a shift in society towards a rising number of adults choosing a single life.
Korean newspaper The Chosun Daily reported that 81 per cent of young adults in South Korea choose to stay with their parents. The outlet attributes this to a statistic that shows it takes a young South Korean around one year on average to start working after finishing education.
Newsweek has contacted the South Korean embassy in the U.S. for a comment.
Saha’s measures are not the first initiative taken to increase the birth rate in the country.Many companies started their rewards for employees who choose to start a family. A construction giant Booyoung Group offers their employees $75,000 for each baby they have, Newsweek reported in March 2024.
“If Korea’s birth rate remains low, the country will face extinction,” Lee Joong-Keun, chairman of the company said.
In July this year, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the creation of a new Birth Rate Ministry to tackle what he called a “national emergency,” Newsweek previously reported. The ministry will oversee a scale of demographic issues besides lowering birthrates such as the ageing population, migration, and workforce.
As Newsweek previously reported, other governmental institutions are also working on finding a solution to the decline. The Labor Ministry and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family are looking into South Koreans’ work-life balance in hopes it could encourage citizens to start families.
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