Reviews | Is South Korea disappearing?
For some time now, South Korea has been a striking textbook case of the depopulation problem plaguing the developed world. Almost all rich countries have seen their birth rates stabilize below replacement level, but this generally means it is around 1.5 children per woman. For example, in 2021, the United States was at 1.7, France at 1.8, Italy at 1.3, and Canada at 1.4.But South Korea stands out for falling into below-replacement territory in the 1980s, but has recently seen an even bigger decline – falling below one child per woman in 2018 to 0 .8 after the pandemic and now, in preliminary data for the second and third quarters. by 2023, to only 0.7 births per woman.It's worth understanding what this means. A country that maintained a birth rate at this level would have, for every 20...