The Korean national holiday Chuseok has just passed. When families get together, there are several topics that always bother young people in Korea. Relatives often ask them, “When are you getting married,” “Why don’t you have a child,” and “Why don’t you have a second child.” Young Koreans get strong pressure to form a so-called "normal family" of parents and unmarried children to fulfill the life cycle tasks of adulthood like everyone else. If we extend this behavior within the family to society as a whole, we can observe a similar picture. In the first half of 2023, the buzzword in Korea was 0.78, the total fertility rate in 2022. Korea's fertility rate has become a national obsession as it continues to set new all-time lows every year. The recently announced fertility rate for the second quarter of this year was 0.70, and at this rate, this year's fertility rate is expected to be lower than last year's. This is nothing new. Numerous measures have emerged to boost the fertility rate. In 2022, the budget for the declining birthrate reached 51.7 trillion won ($37.9 billion). The whole country is trying to boost the rate, but it doesn't seem to be working. Some even predict the possibility of the extinction of Korea in a few hundred years if current population trends continue.

Essentially, it is the average Korean life cycle that has undergone significant changes over the past 25 years, and the declining birthrate is a consequence of this shift. This transformation can be attributed to two primary factors.

Firstly, Korean society's institutions and beliefs have failed to adapt to the evolving life cycle of the average Korean. The changes in the typical Korean's life over this period can be likened to a stretched rubber band, marked with various life events along its length. According to Statistics Korea, life expectancy has increased by nine years, while healthy life expectancy has increased by six years. If you lined up 100 Koreans in a row, the median age -- the age of the person in the middle -- has risen by a whopping 15 years. On average, Korean society has aged 0.6 years per year over the past 25 years. This median age is quite significant in our society, where age is checked everywhere. This is the age when people are treated as adults and can voice their own opinions. Along with the rise in median age, the average age of entry-level employees has also increased by 6 years. This means more time invested in education. For both men and women, the age of first marriage has increased by about five years, and the age of first-time mothers has increased accordingly.

How have families changed? In 1998, families consisting of a married couple and unmarried children were the most common, while dual-earner households with both parents working were 32.4 percent. Today, single-person households are the most common family type in Korea, and as of 2022, 46.1 percent of married households had two-person households. It's worth noting that among married households with children under the age of 18, the percentage of dual-earner households is more than half, at 53.3 percent. The fact that both men and women are studying longer, continuing their careers, and living longer and healthier demonstrates the development of Korea as an advanced knowledge society. It also means that it is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to break into the workforce as adults due to the intense competition in our society.

Society's perception of childcare as a "family responsibility" has remained relatively unchanged. Until an individual reaches a certain level of physical and cognitive capability, they require care and support, known as "care needs." Care needs are complex and exist at the opposite end of the life cycle, especially when aging leads to frailty or dementia. From a physical standpoint, caring for an infant or toddler, in terms of these "care needs" is akin to providing round-the-clock care for an older adult with dementia. The key similarity is the need for uninterrupted care, which poses a significant challenge for working couples with young children.

The average metropolitan office worker spends 9 hours at work, including a 1-hour lunch break. Add to this the average round-trip commute time of 2 hours, which was projected by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport as of 2022, then 11 hours of the day are spent. However, there is no system in society that completely fills these 11 hours. Numerous childcare systems have been created so far but they merely assist care. As a result, many Koreans in their 30s who are struggling with unstable careers choose not to have children.

Secondly, as living beings, our bodies can't keep up with the changes in the world. For women, fertility sharply declines after the age of 30, with fertility at 35 being less than half of what it was in their 20s, and achieving natural conception becomes notably more challenging in their 40s. The delay in having a first child is biologically linked to a lower fertility rate. In addition, declining sperm count and quality in men is a global phenomenon, and women's fertility is also worse than in the past because adults lead less physically active lifestyles and consume more processed foods. The combination of increasing age of social adulthood and deteriorating biological conditions reduces the fertility window from both ends. The high median age of first-time mothers is associated with a low total fertility rate. Korea has one of the highest average ages of first-time mothers and one of the lowest fertility rates among OECD countries. Even with these biological factors, the issue of the declining fertility rate in Korea is difficult to address.

Experts attribute Korea's low birthrate to a combination of high housing costs, unstable employment, and a lack of support for childbirth and parenting. The largest portion of the budget for fertility-related expenses is for real estate rental and financing (46 percent in 2022). This is followed by childcare and care budgets (23 percent). According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport's housing survey, the national average age of first-time homebuyers was 39.1 years old as of 2019. Based on these numbers alone, it can be interpreted that a large portion of the low birthrate budget is allocated to future events that are somewhat distant from the actual time of birth.

The older generations in our society are busy urging young people to have children, saying that the country is doomed. However, the reality is that the moment you mention taking some parental leave, the atmosphere immediately turns cold. The number of chairs isn’t getting higher, the rules of the game aren't changing, so maybe it's the number of people that is falling.

Jung Hee-won, a geriatric physician at Asan Medical Center, graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and trained at Seoul National University Hospital. During his med-school days, while practicing the horn, he realized the importance of muscle maintenance and became interested in sarcopenia. His main research interests include frailty, sarcopenia and establishing age-friendly health systems for acute hospitals. This column was originally published in Chosun Ilbo in Korean on Sept. 27.