Nation urged to boost birthrate to 1.8

Marking the country’s first Population Day, Wednesday, a state-funded think tank called on the government to take bolder measures to tackle rapid demographic changes.

The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) recommended the government boost the birthrate to 1.8 by 2045 to retain the population at its current level _ the birthrate stood at 1.24 children in 2011.

The institute under the Ministry of Health and Welfare said that even if the country maintains a birthrate of 1.8 children until 2045, population replacement will be impossible after that year.

The institute calculated the difference between the optimum population and the population estimate predicted by Statistics Korea for every year. Its research showed that the nation will suffer a labor shortage in 2045 as a result of the decreasing population.

The research was announced during a conference held at the 63 City building located in Yeouido, Seoul.

The government established Population Day last August to boost interest and public awareness of the political, economic, and social effects of a population imbalance and to counter the low birthrate and aging population.

Population Day, designated by the United Nations, falls on July 11. It was established in 1987 to mark the global population reaching 50 billion.

According to research results announced by the government, the nation is expected to undergo a shortage in the productive population aged between 15 and 64 from 2042, three years earlier than previously predicted.

“The shortage problem in the production population will become severe starting from 2042 and onwards. The government must actively implement policies to boost the birthrate,” said Tchoe Byong-ho, president of KIHASA, during his presentation.

He urged the government to take radical measures to retain the nation’s population at the optimum level.

He called for a threefold increase in family allowances and childrearing support in order to raise the birthrate.

He also suggested the government and private sector make joint efforts to create more jobs, while providing state housing support for newlyweds.

“It is important to boost the population by 2020 when we can have a surplus population to achieve future growth because it will be our last chance,” he said.

The nation’s population surpassed the 50-million mark last month. But KIHASA predicted the number to fall to 49.81 million in 2045, about 170,000 less than the optimum population of 49.98 million.

The research center also said that the population will further drop to 48.12 million in 2050. <The Korea Times/Yun Suh-young>

news@theasian.asia