In 1979, the South Korean population was about 37,000,000, and the number of live births was 878,000.

In 2021, the population was about 50,000,000, and the number of live births was 260,000.

It’s been a pretty steady decline in the number of live births from 1979 to now.

The population growth rate has been decreasing for awhile, again, since about 1979. The last five years or so has seen the growth rate be slightly negative. They are at the start of the actual loss of population numbers.

Something that is probably not helping at all is that abortion was illegal (with a few of the usual exceptions) until 2021, when it became totally decriminalized.

From personal experience, South Koreans are some of the nicest and most respectful people I have ever been around. The culture is amazing.

Also, I swear I live in a simulation. I haven’t seen anything about Korea on Cougarboard in forever. I had a conversation about South Korean birth statistics about 3 hours ago, and boom, here’s a discussion of the same thing on Cougarboard. Oh well.