Half of women give up having child due to financial reasons

Expectant mothers and their husbands learn yoga for pregnant women in Seoul. Korea Times file

By Kim Hyun-bin

Nearly half of women in Korea are not willing to have a child ― or an additional child if they already have one or more ― due to financial pressure from childcare and education costs, a report showed Monday.

According to the report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, which was based on a 2018 survey of females aged between 15 and 49 years old, 84.8 percent of them said they had no plan to have a child in the future; 10 percent said they were, while 4.8 percent stated they were not sure.

Nearly half, or 47.1 percent, cited the economic burden as their main reason, including overwhelming education fees (16.8 percent), childcare expenses (14.2 percent), low income and unstable job status (7.9 percent), difficulty in both raising a child and remaining at work (6.9 percent), and not having a proper house to raise a child (1.3 percent).

“I have a child but we are not planning for a second one, as the cost for the first child is huge,” Lee, a Seoul resident in her mid-30s, said. “We need to save up for our retirement and want to have money for leisure activities.”

Among non-economic factors, 20.1 percent said they already had their desired number of children, 20.1 percent said they were too old to give birth, 3.1 percent said they wanted to enjoy life on their own, while 2.8 percent said children were not happy in Korean society.

Most women between the ages 45 to 49 cited old age for not wanting another child. Those in their 20s cited high childcare expenses, while women from 35 to 39 said child education fees were the reason.

“The government needs to get rid of the barriers that are stopping couples from having children. To make that happen, the government needs to provide financial support for childbirth and childcare, as well as working toward better social safety nets and better lives, so people can have positive prospects for society,” the report said.