In January a small ray of hope was first seen in South Korea. After years of demographic debacle, the nation finally saw a rising figure breaking a streak of almost a decade. There were 243,000 births, 3.1% more than in 2023. However, for now It served very littleso much that the nation is offering incentives for newborns that no one had heard before.
“Favorable” data. As we said, those 243,000 births They are a positive fact, but not so much when we move away to see the map in perspective, since the general data is well below the one handled the country is not so much. In 2024 about 242,000 babies were born in South Korea, but in 2015 they were 444,000 And just a five years ago the 310,000 were touched.
In fact and As we explain, the World Bank Group data They show that since the 1960s the nation has seen how its fertility rate sank at an alarming speed: 5.9 in 1960 to 0.8 three years ago. In 2023 he marked a new Historical minimum When staying at 0.72. And there is more. 2024 also left more deaths: they registered 360,757 deathsa 1.93% More than in 2023. Again, the result is a very bad photo General despite the fact that more babies were born in hospitals. Although the population fell to a lesser extent That in 2023, he also descended without the migration balance seems to have solved it.
Flexible schedules subsidies. Thus we arrive at the first of the two news of the week in the country. In an attempt to combat the galloping birth crisis, the Government of the city of Suwon and the province of Gyeonggi are implementing innovative programs to support working families and new mothers. As? As of March, Suwon will offer small and medium enterprises subsidies with less than 300 employees that allow the parents of first degree children start working at 10 am
This adjustment seeks to relieve the child care burden during a critical stage of school adaptation. Companies that implement this time reduction They can receive up to 600,000 wones ($ 450) per employee for two monthsbenefiting a maximum of 10 employees by company. The program will accept the first 100 applications through the Saebit Toktok application or from the city’s website. In this regard, a city official explained that the initiative aims to help parents support their children at the beginning of their school life without facing salary reductions.
Premium meat for new moms. The second measure “star” is possibly more shocking. In this case, the province of Gyeonggi will expand a pilot program that offers Premium meat packages Hanwoo to mothers who register the birth of their children. According to the government, it is an incentive that seeks to support postpartum recovery and foster the consumption of local meat.
In this regard and in response to inflation, the budget for each package It has increased from 50,000 to 100,000 Wones, benefiting about 40,000 mothers in 2024. Applications may be made through the Gyeonggi Civil Service 24 platform or in the administrative well -being centers of the participating municipalities. Only one “but”: the initiative will not be available in the main cities of the province, such as Suwon, Seongnam and Goyang, covering only 26 of the 31 cities and counties of Gyeonggi.
The last one? bullet. These measures are added to others that we have been telling, such as Hire foreign nannythe municipal appointment programs, that girls begin the school beforeeither The Super Babies. Subsidies and meat Premium They seem to be more focused on making the raising of children more accessible and attractive, encouraging couples to have more children in a country where the aging of the population is, as we said, a more than growing concern.
Image | Richard Lee
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