The number of obstetrics clinics in South Korea has halved since 2004 due to the country’s critically low birth rate, according to government data.
According to the data, the number of clinics where women can give birth dropped from 1,311 in 2004 to 641 this year. Fifty-five of 232 municipalities nationwide do not have any clinics for expectant mothers.
This means 1 out of 4 municipalities across the country do not have maternity units.
One of the main reasons for this is the nation’s low birthrate, which stood at 1.18 children per women in 2013 ― the lowest among OECD countries. The number of Korean newborns dropped by 9.9 percent in the same year from 2012.
A government projection last year even showed that South Koreans could “go extinct” by 2750 if the current trend continued.
According to scholar Kim Young-nam at Korea Women’s Development Institute, one of the main reasons for the low fertility rate is the high number of young Koreans who put off dating and marriage due to lack of financial means.
By Claire Lee (
dyc@heraldcorp.com)
