SEOUL (ANN/THE KOREA HERALD) – Marriage and parenthood are increasingly associated with fear and anxiety among South Korea’s younger generation, according to an analysis released Tuesday.
According to an analysis of posts on Blind, an online community for young workers, two-thirds of marriage-related posts carried emotions of “sadness,” “fear” or “abomination.”
Of these, 32.3 per cent displayed feelings of “sadness” while 24.6 per cent exhibited “fear” and 10.2 per cent were categorized under “abomination.”
On the other hand, only 9.3 per cent of the posts expressed happiness.
A similar trend could be observed for childbirth and child-rearing. According to the institute, over 60 per cent of childbirth-related posts carried these negative emotions, with “abomination” leading at 23.8 per cent, followed by “fear” (21.3 per cent) and “sadness” (15.3 per cent). Nearly 70 per cent of posts about child-rearing exhibited such emotions.
The analysis was conducted by not-for-profit private-sector think tank Korean Peninsula Population Institute for Future. It was based on some 50,000 Blind posts combined from December 2017 to November last year about marriage, childbirth or child-rearing.
Despite government efforts to reverse the nation’s dwindling birth rate with various policies, the study revealed that negative perceptions toward family life persist, highlighting deep-rooted societal and economic issues.
The same analysis also showed that the word “money” appeared in nearly 30 per cent of all posts related to marriage and in 13.2 per cent of posts about childbirth.
Moreover, nearly 60 per cent of the marriage-related posts centered around the “preparations and conditions for marriage,” while almost 20 per cent of childbirth-related posts talked about “financial support related to childbirth.”
This came as South Korea’s fertility rate rebounded in 2024, with an average of 0.75 children per woman, marking the first increase in nine years. However, the institute noted that young people’s perceptions of marriage, childbirth and child-rearing remain negative. It warned that the recent rise in the birth rate might be temporary, potentially influenced by a base effect after the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that it’s premature to determine if the trend will persist.
Yoo Hye-jeong, director of the population research center at the KPPIF, called for robust policy measures to tackle the financial challenges facing younger generations and their struggle to maintain a work-family balance, ensuring that the increase in the birth rate persists.
A separate government survey also highlighted negative perceptions of marriage and parenthood.
According to the survey of some 15,000 people aged between 19 and 34 by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, those willing to get married amounted to 63.1 per cent in 2024, down by 12 percentage points compared with the same survey two years before. Those wishing to have a baby also slid 4 percentage points in two years to 59.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, acting President and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok on Tuesday laid out a new batch of support plans for young married couples or couples willing to get married.
The government plans to provide families with at least three children priority passes in airport boarding processes in South Korea when traveling overseas, and affordable public housing to a wider range of newlywed couples or couples with a newborn child.
In May, Seoul and local authorities will collaborate on a pilot initiative where approximately 5,000 senior citizens will drop off children at schools and kindergartens due to the strong need for childcare staff among working parents.
