Despite a slew of costly government measures aimed at turning the situation around, South Korea continues to struggle with a chronically-low birthrate.<br />In fact, the nation's birthrate hit a record low in 2017.<br />So far, this year it's more of the same.<br />Ko Roon-hee has more. <br />Despite the government's efforts to tackle the country's low birth rate, the number of newborns in Korea last year hit a record low. <br /> According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, around 358-thousand babies were born in 2017...which is down 11-point- 9 percent from the previous year. <br />This is the lowest since related figures were first compiled in 1970. <br /><br /> The total fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is predicted to have in her lifetime, dropped to 1-point-zero-five last year…also marking another record low. <br />This figure is down from 1-point-17 the year before. <br /><br /> Based on the 2016 data, South Korea's total fertility rate was the lowest out of 36 OECD member countries. <br />The average birthrate of OECD countries stood at 1-point-68 in 2016. <br /><br />And the latest figures show the problem is grim for this year too. <br /> There were just 26-thousand 4-hundred births in June… which is down 15-hundred from the previous month. <br />In the first six months of the year, the number of births fell by almost 9-percent on year to record its lowest figures since 1981. <br /> Meanwhile,... the South Korean government announced last month it would allocate an extra 800-million U.S. dollars of next year's budget to tackle this chronic problem.<br />The government has been encouraging families to have more babies by offering incentives, including cash rewards… but nothing has stopped the decline.<br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
