Gumi-si Ranks First in Province for Overcoming Low Birthrate... Praised for Establishing Care and Medical Infrastructure

'Gyeongbuk Province's Top City/County in This Year's Low Birthrate Overcoming Excellence Evaluation'

Leading and Proactive Efforts to Overcome Low Birthrate Achievements

Gumi City in Gyeongbuk Province received the top Excellence Award, ranking first among cities and counties in the province, at the ‘2024 Low Birthrate Overcoming Excellence Evaluation’ hosted by Gyeongbuk Province on the 17th.

Gyeongbuk Province Low Birthrate Evaluation Awards Ceremony (right: Park Sang-jin, Director of Population and Youth Division, Gumi City). Provided by Gumi City

This achievement is the result of Gumi City mobilizing all administrative capabilities to address the low birthrate issue.

Gyeongbuk Province comprehensively evaluated the performance of 22 cities and counties in the province across six major areas: meeting, childbirth, care, housing, work-life balance, and gender equality, as well as efforts to discover policies tailored to regional characteristics.

At the beginning of this year, Gumi City became the first among the 22 cities and counties in the province to establish a ‘Low Birthrate Countermeasure TF Team,’ and in July, it expanded and reorganized it into the ‘Future Education and Care Bureau,’ further strengthening the response system to low birthrate. Based on this, the city has prepared and implemented effective policies covering all life stages from meeting, pregnancy, childbirth, to care.

In particular, the city received high evaluations by consecutively implementing groundbreaking policies leading Gyeongbuk and the nation. These include △ the first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Gyeongbuk △ the first Pregnant Women Taxi (K-MOM TAXI) operation in Gyeongbuk △ the largest K-Bodeum 6000 (24-hour care system) operation in Gyeongbuk △ and the nation’s first Gumi branch of the Gyeongbuk Job Convenience Store, all of which have high citizen satisfaction and are policies that can be expanded to other local governments.

The effects of these policies are reflected in the numbers. As of the end of November this year, Gumi City’s cumulative number of marriages reached 1,562, already surpassing last year’s total of 1,499 marriages. The number of births is also expected to exceed 2,000 by the end of the year, signaling a positive sign in overcoming the low birthrate.

Mayor Kim Jang-ho said, “This award is a meaningful achievement recognizing the low birthrate overcoming policies that Gumi City has been promoting externally,” and added, “We will continue to implement policies that citizens can feel, creating a city where it is good to have and raise children.”

Going forward, Gumi City plans to further strengthen customized low birthrate overcoming policies for each life stage, such as expanding meeting programs for unmarried men and women, supporting marriage incentives for young workers, providing postpartum care expenses, and expanding 24-hour care and childcare services.