South Korea has smashed its own record for the world's lowest fertility rate again, according to official data. The average number of expected babies per South Korean woman over her reproductive life fell to 0.78 in 2022, down from 0.81 a year earlier, according to data published by Statistics Korea on Wednesday.
Fertility rates in Asia
South Korea has the lowest fertility rate globally at 0.9 children per woman, closely followed by Puerto Rico at 1.0 and a trio of Malta, Singapore, and the Chinese Special Administrative Region Hong Kong all at 1.1 children per woman.
Official world population statistics show that South Korea has a falling birth rate, with just 6.89 births per 1,000 people. Andorra also has a plummeting number, at 6.91 births per 1,000, with Puerto Rico (7.90) and Portugal (8.02) also appearing on the list.
Following a rise around the beginning of the millennium, the fertility rate reached 2.02 births per woman by 2008. It has been trending down since then. As noted above, there was a sharp decrease reported for 2020 but the 2021 statistics indicated a recovery in these numbers.
Causes of low fertility
South Korea is facing a decline in childbirth because many young people are distancing themselves from marriage and having children due to the lack of decent job opportunities, high home prices, and heavy private education fees.
In the United States, the highest fertility rates (per 1,000 women ages 15-44) during 2018-2020 (average) were to Hispanic women (64.8), followed by blacks (62.6), American Indian/Alaska Natives (60.8), Asian/Pacific Islanders (55.6) and Whites (55.3).
According to Unicef's most recent Child Well Being in Rich Countries survey, Dutch kids ranked as the happiest kids in the world. Dutch kids led the way in three out of the five categories, namely- material well being, educational well being, and behavior and risks.
Mariam Nabatanzi, a woman from Africa, was just 13 -years -old when she gave birth to her twin babies. She is considered the most fertile woman in the world. The woman is known as Mama Uganda among her people in Uganda, East Africa. Nabatanzi's birth-giving saga began after she was married off at the age of 12.
Which U.S. City Has the Least Children? The city in the United States with the least children is San Francisco, California, where only 13.4% of the population is 18 or younger, according to the 2020 census data. With a total population of 873,965, the city of San Francisco has roughly 117,100 children residing in it.
Permanent childlessness has increased rapidly across East Asia, from low levels at 4%–12% among women born in the 1950s to very high levels among those born in the 1970s (Figure 1). In Singapore, 28% of women born in 1975–1980 were childless at the time of the 2020 census.
With a fertility rate of almost 7 children per woman, Niger is the country with the highest fertility rate in the world followed by Mali. The total population of Niger is growing at a fast pace. The population growth in Niger is amongst the top 10 highest in the world.
Vietnam was the country with the fewest twins (6.2 per 1,000 births) and Benin was the country with the most (27.9 per 1,000). Over time, some of these developing countries saw increases in twins, but some saw decreases and some stayed the same, with any changes tending to be small.
According to research published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Danish, German and Japanese babies cry the least, while British, Canadian and Italian babies cry the most. “I'm not surprised,” Danish parenting expert and co-author of The Danish Way of Parenting Jessica Joelle Alexander tells me.
In Latin America, the Philippines, and Vietnam, some parents sleep with their baby in a hammock next to the bed. Others place their baby in a wicker basket in the bed, between the two parents. In Japan, many parents sleep next to their baby on bamboo or straw mats, or on futons.
Norway. Norway ranks as the best country to be a mother due to its wonderful health care and education systems. Mothers enjoy substantial maternity leave and childcare provisions. The country offers low cost day care and flexible schemes that allow mothers to return back to work while collecting maternity leave.
Racial differences were seen where Asians had the highest mean semen concentrations (69.2 × 106/mL) while blacks had the lowest (51.3 × 106/mL).
A woman's peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s. By age 30, fertility (the ability to get pregnant) starts to decline. This decline happens faster once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely.
In most western countries, fertility is low, and men's fertility is slightly below that of women, often by around 0.1 children (Figure 2). However, men's fertility is much higher than women's in many other countries of the world where the fertility transition is still under way (Figure 2).
Young Koreans cite as obstacles the high cost of housing in greater Seoul (home to roughly half the country's 52 million citizens), the expense of raising a child in a hypercompetitive academic culture, and grueling workplace norms that are inhospitable to family life, especially for women, who are still expected to do ...
Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, corporate cultures that are incompatible with both parents — but especially women — working, and a lack of public tolerance for small children. Many couples also hesitate to have children due to rising costs.
In its public pronouncements, Pyongyang has called for accelerated population growth and encouraged large families. According to one Korean American scholar who visited North Korea in the early 1980s, the country has no birth control policies; parents are encouraged to have as many as six children.