fallen much more quickly and steeply than almost any other country, over a relatively short period of time. Many other countries have fertility rates below replacement, but most of the worst are about double South Korea’s — S. Korea’s fertility rate would have to double just to catch up with most other large low-fertility-rate countries.

And 30 or 40 years ago South Korea had higher fertility rates than almost all of them. Compared to South Korea, fertility rates in most of the rich world have been fairly stable for the last few decades. For example, Japan’s is 1.2 or 1.3 now, (depending on the source), and was 1.54 in 1990 — so it is low, and has declined over the last ~30 years, but not so steeply. Meanwhile, South Korea was at 1.57 in 1990, compared to 0.68 now.