UN report shows Korean women least inclined to have kids among leading nations

Nurses tend to newborns at a postnatal care center at CHA Ilsan Medical Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, May 28. Newsis

Korean women show the lowest propensity for having children among major countries surveyed in a United Nations-backed study, underscoring the nation’s worsening demographic crisis and enduring gender divides over attitudes toward parenthood.

According to preliminary findings from a family panel study conducted by the Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI) Wednesday, Korean women rated their willingness to have children at just 1.58 out of 5 — the lowest among eight countries and territories with comparable data. The figures will be presented at the institute’s gender equality policy forum on Thursday.

In comparison, Korean men scored significantly higher at 2.09, marking the widest gender gap in childbearing intent among the survey targets, which included Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, Austria and Hong Kong.

The study is part of the Generations and Gender Survey, an international panel project led by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe that tracks evolving family patterns and gender roles.

While Korean men’s intentions to have children closely mirror global averages, Korean women’s willingness diverges sharply. The gender gap in Korea — measured at 0.51 points — is markedly wider than in countries such as Germany (0.05), the U.K. (0.04) and Denmark (minus 0.06).

Ironically, Koreans expressed a stronger belief in the importance of children in life compared to their global peers.

When asked whether having children is essential for a happy and fulfilling life, Korean women responded with an average score of 2.93, and men 3.08 — the highest among all countries surveyed.

Children run out of a classroom to enjoy the first day of summer vacation at Puil Elementary School in Incheon, Tuesday. Yonhap

These figures even surpassed those of neighboring family-oriented societies like Hong Kong, where women scored 1.73 and men 2.06, and far exceeded countries such as Norway and the Netherlands, where agreement averaged below 2 points.

The survey sampled 2,634 men and women aged 19 to 59 across Korea. Seventy-six percent of respondents participated in face-to-face interviews, and the rest completed online surveys. It serves as a foundational step toward a comprehensive family panel survey to be launched next year, which aims to examine shifts in family structures and life trajectories.

“Family formation patterns in our society are rapidly diversifying, but our total fertility rate remains the lowest in the world,” said KWDI President Kim Jong-sook. “A new research framework that captures the complexities of gender, generations and family is vital in responding to Korea’s low birthrates.”

Korea’s total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime — rose modestly to 0.82 in the first quarter of 2025, up from 0.77 a year earlier.

Despite the slight rebound, Korea’s birthrate remains the lowest among OECD member countries, whose average stood at 1.51 in 2022. The figure is still far below the population replacement level of 2.1, which is the average number of children each woman needs to have over her lifetime for a population to remain stable from one generation to the next.