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Last year, the number of births decreased by 12,000 again compared to a year ago.

Among OECD countries, Korea is the only country with a fertility rate of less than one.

A fertility rate that is so low doesn't have a big impact right away, but it can make it difficult for our children when they become adults.

In the long run, this is a very important challenge that we must tackle.



Correspondent Jo Ki-ho.



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Ahn Jin-hee, who has been married for 13 years, has decided not to have her children after her married life.



[Ahn Jin-hee / 13 years of marriage: Looking around, I heard a lot that it is always difficult (raising a child), and even just the two of us can have a private life enough...

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As the number of cases like Mr. An increased, last year's fertility rate once again hit an all-time low.



Last year, the total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, fell to 0.81.



It has been a steep downhill since the 1 Myongdae collapsed in 2018.



This is half of the OECD country average of 1.59, and in particular, we are the only country with less than one.



The tendency to have children late has also intensified.



The average age of mothers giving birth increased by two years from 31.4 years ago 10 years ago to 33.4 years ago.



The fertility rate for women in their late 30s and early 40s increased, but those in their late twenties and early thirties declined more.



By region, only Sejong and Jeonnam had more than one, and the rest of the regions had less than one, and in particular, Seoul had the lowest with 0.63.



It looks like it will drop even further this year.



This is because the number of births by June fell to 128,000, a 6% decrease from the same period last year.



[Noh Hyeong-jun / Director of Population Statistics Division, Statistics Korea: Considering the birth statistics trend during the first half of 22 years and the trend of births decreasing toward the end of the year, it is not expected that the number of births or the total fertility rate will rise in 2022 (total)...

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The government predicted that the fertility rate would rebound after three years and recover one child by 2030, but the possibility is not high.



This is because, although more than 380 trillion won has been spent until last year as countermeasures against the low birth rate, the fertility rate is only decreasing rather than rebounding.