People wearing face masks walk in front of Yongsan Station in Seoul on April 1, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The coronavirus pandemic, which has roiled markets since 2020, may be hurting the finances of South Korea’s state pension fund, a report said Sunday.
The National Pension Research Institute reported that the number of marriages dropped to 214,000 in 2020, down 10.7 percent from 2019. In 2021, there were 193,000 marriages, which was 9.8 percent fewer than in 2020.
The number of childbirths has also dropped. In 2020, there were 272,000 newborn children, 10 percent fewer than in 2019 (303,000). In 2021, there were 261,000 newborn children, which was 4.3 percent less than the previous year.
In contrast, the aging population in South Korea is leading to an increasing number of deaths, from 295,000 in 2019 to 305,000 in 2020 and 318,000 in 2021.
Consequently, the national pension’s finances have been subject to direct and indirect impacts from these changes.
The number of subscribers to the national pension dropped from 22.22 million people in 2019 to 22.11 million in 2020. The number of local subscribers, in particular, dropped from 7.23 million in 2019 to 6.9 million in 2020 and 6.83 million in 2021.
The number of subscribers to the national pension with special payment exemptions, which had been on a gradual decrease in the pre-COVID-19 era, has also begun to rise in proportion, going from 45.3 percent in 2019 to 49.2 percent in 2021.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
