As for the reason as to why they hesitated to have children, 49.3 percent of the respondents said it was because of the high cost of education. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The biggest reason why Seoul citizens are reluctant to marry or give birth is because they are both too expensive.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s poll of 1,000 citizens aged 19 or older, 303 unmarried people cited “too much money needed for marriage, including buying house,” accounting for 35.3 percent as the biggest reason not to get married.
Next came 34.7 percent of the respondents who said “marriage is no longer a must”, followed by 25.7 percent who “did not meet the right person for marriage” and 21.1 percent who said it was because they could not find a job or have a stable job.
As for the reason as to why they hesitated to have children, 49.3 percent said it was because of the high cost of education.
This was followed by 44.4 percent who cited the “high cost of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare”, and 33.9 percent who lacked access to child care facilities or had no one to take care of their children.
A total of 30.2 percent of the respondents cited a “child support policy” as the most necessary policy to counter the low birthrate.
Policies related to work-life balance followed at 25.9 percent, while those related to housing support policy, which accounted for 20.1 percent and education support policy, which accounted for 14.1 percent, were also notable.
The most popular method of government support was “cash support”, in the form of birth incentives and child allowances, and “service support”, in the form of child care services as well as education support related to pregnancy and child care, which accounted for 44.2 percent and 35.7 percent, respectively.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
