Thousands of South Korea schools close as birth rate plummets

Thousands of schools in South Korea have closed as the birth rate continues to fall. It's a problem that is rising in the U.S. as well, and will have serious consequences

Key Takeaways:

• South Korea currently has the lowest birth rate in the world.

• Over 4,000 schools have closed as a result, with the student population increasingly shrinking.

• Young adults are now outnumbered by the elderly in South Korea.

The Details:

According to the Korea Times, since 1980,4,008 schools have closed across the country as the birth rate continues to fall. This includes 3,674 elementary schools, 264 middle schools, and 70 high schools. This decline is expected to grow, particularly in rural areas. 158 schools have closed in the last five years, and 107 are projected to closer over the next five.

“A considerable number of schools have already closed, and this will continue as student numbers decline,” Rep. Jin Sun-mee said. “We must not stop at simply shutting schools down, but instead develop a long‑term road map to repurpose them as assets for local communities.”

These 3 things could be contributing to the plummeting U.S. birth rate

The total fertility rate in South Korea is 0.7, the lowest of any country in the world. The replacement rate, or the number of children needed to replace a country's current population, is 2.1 children per woman. Only Macao, a special administrative region of China, is lower.

Why It Matters:

In October, data from South Korea revealed that the elderly population now outnumbers the population of young adults. Previously, adults in their 20s formed the largest share of the population, but that population peaked in 2020, and has declined ever since.

There are systematic issues in the country leading to the birth rate falling, including a plummeting marriage rate, which insinuates that young adults are spurning both marriage and parenthood.

Similar fertility issues can be seen in other Asian countries, and as in Japan and China, South Korea’s problems stem from decades-old population control policies. After the end of the Korean War, the government began heavily promoting family planning policies, with couples pressured to be sterilized in the 1970s and 1980s. While those policies are no longer in place, the mindset remains.

And while the problem is most pronounced in Asia, birth rates are drastically plummeting across the globe. A large number of school closings is a problem in the U.S. as well as the birth rate has dropped 20% since 2007, according to NPR.

The Bottom Line:

A too-low birth rate will have catastrophic consequences on a country, particularly for those who depend on welfare services. As Shin Seung-keun, a professor of fiscal policy at Tech University of Korea, warned that this will eventually have catastrophic consequences, explained, “From medical services to welfare, demand for spending will increase while fewer taxes will be collected as the number of young people decreases.”