South Korea’s birthrate, the lowest in the world, rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, as policy efforts to incentivise companies and Koreans to embrace parenthood started to pay off.
Over the past decade, the country had seen its birthrate plummet as women prioritised career advancement over marriage or parenthood due to the rising cost of housing and raising a child, putting the country’s population of 51 million on track to halve by the end of this century.
