Is Korea soon going to face the so-called demographic cliff, in which the ratio of working age population falls at an alarming rate? <br />Korea's fertility rate has fallen rapidly in recent years... with last year's figure expected to be the lowest since Statistics Korea began recording the data.<br />Kim Hyesung reports.<br /> <br />New figures show South Korea's total fertility rate for 2018 is expected to drop below one.<br />According to the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy on Friday, last year's total fertility rate is expected to record between zero-point-96 and zero-point-97... with around 325-thousand births in the country. <br />That's down from 2017's fertility rate of one-point-zero-five, and is the lowest rate since Statistics Korea began recording the data in 1970.<br />The fertility rate is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years.<br />A rate of around 2-point-one is needed to produce a stable population, but now the figure has declined to half that level.<br />Korea’s fertility rate also ranks as the lowest in the OECD, far below the OECD average of 1-point-six-eight. <br />The proportion of the population that is economically productive, aged between 15 and 64, has also started to drop from 2017 after hitting an all-time-high of 73 percent in 2016... which could slow down consumption and production, and therefore economic growth.<br />To tackle the falling fertility rate, the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy announced last December that it will focus on maintaining new births at the 300-thousand level through government support for parenting such as medical care and childcare.<br />Kim Hyesung, Arirang News. <br />
