A newborn at a hospital in Seoul. South Korea’s total fertility rate hit an all-time low in 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid growing concerns about the decline in fertility rate among South Korean women, the fertility rate of women who have low educational attainment or work in non-professional jobs is falling at a rapid pace, emphasizing the need to strengthen policy support for these individuals, a report showed Wednesday.
The fertility rate among women who have low educational attainment or work in non-professional jobs has been declining at a faster pace in recent years, according to a report from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.
The report analyzed and compared the total fertility rate (TFR) of different groups based on education attainment, employment and job type.
TFR refers to the number of children that a hypothetical female would have over the course of her reproductive life.
After analyzing the 1976-2017 period TFR and the cohort TFR for the 1946-1977 cohorts, the report found that the two figures both continued on a downward trend.
The period TFR fell to below 1.3, a level that indicates an ultra-low fertility rate, from 2001 after hovering around 3 in 1976. The period TFR stood at 1.03 in 2017.
The comparison of TFR by education, employment and job type showed somewhat different results.
The change in TFR from the 1956-1960 cohorts to the 1971-1975 cohorts showed that the TFR for the high educational attainment group was lower than that of the group with lower educational attainment throughout all cohorts.
However, the TFR of the group with more than university level education fell by 0.23 from 1.77 to 1.54, while that of the group with less than high school level education slid by 0.28 from 1.99 to 1.71.
Accordingly, the gap between the two groups was narrowed from 0.22 to 0.17.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
