Hanbando Future Population Research Institute In-depth Awareness Survey
Women 53%... "No Need for Children or Economic Means"
A survey revealed that 4 out of 10 men and women aged 20 to 49 in our country have no intention of having children.
According to a recent in-depth survey on marriage and childbirth perceptions conducted by the Korea Future Population Research Institute together with the research firm Embrain, targeting 2,000 men and women aged 20 to 49 nationwide and announced on the 1st, about half (53.2%) of the unmarried men and women (1,164 respondents) said they "intend to marry."
Those who answered "do not intend to marry" accounted for 27.4%, and "unsure" was 19.4%. The proportion of respondents who do not intend to marry was higher among women (34.6%) than men (21.5%). The main reason men avoided marriage was "economic insecurity" (20.1%), while women cited "believing living alone would be happier" (17.6%).
Notably, 42.6% of respondents said they "do not intend to have children." The proportion of those not intending to have children was much higher among women (52.9%) than men (33.1%). By age group, those in their 40s showed the highest non-childbearing intention at 63.9%, followed by 35.2% in their 30s and 23.6% in their 20s.
Reasons women gave for not wanting children included "not feeling the necessity to have children" (13.9%), "lack of financial means to care for and raise children" (12.7%), and "the enormous costs of child education" (10.7%). For men, the top reasons were "feeling unstable in employment or job status" (17.9%), "lack of financial means to care for and raise children" (16.0%), and "not feeling the necessity to have children" (10.5%).
However, even among those who do not intend to marry or have children, a significant number indicated they might change their minds if government policies and corporate support conditions improve. Among 544 unmarried men and women who do not plan to marry, 38.6% were considered a flexible group who might reconsider marriage and childbirth if government policies and corporate support increase. The remaining 61.4% were a fixed group maintaining their non-marriage stance regardless of government or corporate support. Among 1,245 respondents who do not intend to have children, nearly half (44.1%) said they would consider having children if government policies and corporate support were significantly expanded.
Among government low birthrate support measures, the highest-rated item was "expansion of parental leave and salary support," receiving a score of 73.4 out of 100. This was followed by "parental allowance and monthly child benefits" (70.5 points), "reduction of children's hospital fees" (68.4 points), "childcare support programs" (68.3 points), and "expansion of public daycare centers and kindergartens" (63.7 points). In terms of corporate support, "child education expense support" (72.0 points), "childcare expense support" (70.7 points), "automatic parental leave system" (69.9 points), "reduced working hours during childcare period" (69.0 points), and "mandatory paternity leave system" (68.8 points) received high scores.
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