By Lee Kyung-min
Korea ranked 219th out of 224 countries surveyed in birthrate, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency report revealed Sunday.
Countries that have lower birthrates than Korea include Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Except for Taiwan with a population of almost 23 million, other countries with low birth rates have populations of less than 10 million, making Korea with a population of almost 50 million, virtually the country with the lowest birth rate.
Korea’s birth rate remains the lowest among 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries.
Maintaining its current population, the OECD earlier concluded, would require a replacement birthrate of 2.1.
Countries that fail to maintain the 2.1 rate are called “low-birth rate societies” and those with a rate below 1.3 are called “ultra-low birth rate societies.”
The birthrate for women of childbearing age (15 to 49) stood at 4.53 in 1970 in Korea. The birthrate fell sharply in the 1970-80s until it hit rock bottom at 1.08 in 2005.
Statistics Korea said the number of newborns this year would be less than 400,000, the lowest ever since the government began compiling data.