US Vice Presidential Candidate Says Low Birthrate Issue "Following South Korea's Path"

In Interview, Concerns Over US Population Decline Drawn with Korean Comparison
Korea, Symbol of Low Birthrate... Foreign Media Spotlighting One After Another

J.D. Vance, a U.S. senator who is likely to become the running mate (vice presidential candidate) of former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, recently mentioned South Korea as an example while discussing the population crisis in American society.

In a recent interview with the American political media outlet Politico Magazine, he addressed the low birthrate issue in the U.S., saying, "In the future, you may not see children shouting in the streets of America, and there may not be enough children to fill schools."

He added, "This is not a matter of whether the government provides social security or not, but it could be a crisis that could completely collapse this society." The U.S. also faces a social problem as its total fertility rate, which once exceeded 3.6 in the early 1960s, dropped to 1.64 in 2021.

Vance said that American society is heading in the opposite demographic direction and likened it to "the way of South Korea."

Senator J.D. Vance [Photo by Yonhap News]

As Vance stated, South Korea is now becoming a global symbol of low birthrates. Last month, the British BBC highlighted the causes and background of South Korea's low birthrate, such as expensive housing prices and private education. The Times also reported various cases and commented, "If the current trend continues, the potential extinction of Koreans will increase."

The New York Times (NYT) published a column titled "Is South Korea Disappearing?" in December last year, describing South Korea as "a prominent case study in the population decline problem faced by developed countries" and shedding light on South Korea's low birthrate issue. The column introduced South Korea's third-quarter birthrate statistics recently released and explained, "This population decline surpasses the population decrease caused by the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century."

U.S. CNN also reported in an article titled "South Korea's New Enemy: Demographics," stating, "South Korea will face a shortage of personnel to maintain its military in the future," and "South Korea's total fertility rate of only 0.78 could become the biggest enemy of the South Korean military."

Meanwhile, Vance, who was elected as a federal senator from Ohio in 2022 with the support of former President Trump, is one of the individuals mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate for Trump in the November presidential election within the Republican Party. He is well known domestically as the author of the bestseller Hillbilly Elegy, which captures the hardships of the poor and marginalized white working-class in the Rust Belt (the declining industrial region in the U.S. Midwest).