Figure 7
South Korea is officially recognized as the Republic of Korea and shares a land border with North Korea. It constitutes the Southern part of the peninsula and has a population of approximately 51.8 million people as of december, 2020. What’s interesting is that more than half of the population live in the country’s capital city, Seoul Capital Area (SCA). Through information gathered through korean statistical information, 25, 925, 799 south korean citizens live in the SCA (Hankyoreh, 2020). This has led to the capital being recognized as the fifth largest metropolitan area in the world and the first time for something like this to ever happen in the country.
While this may be the case, South Korea is suffering a huge decline within its population. They currently have the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.92 (worldpopulationreview, 2021). The average woman over there is having less than one child. Low birth rates and an aging population is hindering the republic’s future. The country is getting older, which means the labor and military force could be in great danger. At this rate, some experts believe that more than half of South Korea’s population will be over the age of 65 by 2065 (worldpopulationreview, 2021).
In fact, South Korea’s fertility problem is getting so bad that more people are dying then being born. According to a census released by the South Korean government, a decrease in numbers of infants being born was surpassed by an increasing number of deaths. In the year 2020, there were 275,815 births and 307,746 deaths (gladstone, 2021). This was the first time that has ever happened to South Korea. This was very traumatizing, especially when you put into perspective that they’re the 4th largest economy in Asia. The population is shrinking and getting older and if the government doesn’t do anything to fix this problem, the republic could be in a state of emergency within the next couple of years.
Page Author: Omar Touray
