Over half of young women willing to give birth: survey

SEOUL, March 7 (Yonhap) -- Over half of young women in South Korea said they are willing to give birth, a government survey showed Tuesday, as the nation is struggling to boost the world's lowest fertility rate.

According to the survey of 15,000 young people aged 19 to 34, 55.3 percent of female respondents said they intend to have children, the Office for Government Policy Coordination said in a statement.

In comparison, 70.5 percent of male respondents said they are willing to have children.

The survey was reported to President Yoon Suk Yeol at a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day.

Last year, the country's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, hit another record low of 0.78, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep South Korea's population stable at 51.5 million.

The survey found that the average annual income of young people stood at 21.62 million won (US$16,225) and their average debt was 11.72 million won.

Additionally, 67.4 percent of young people were employed, and 7.5 percent of them were self-employed.

Although they were into adulthood, 57.5 percent of young people live with their parents, the survey showed.

Of young people who didn't move out of their parents' homes, 67.7 percent said they have no plan to get their own place mainly because of economic reasons.

Getting loans to buy new homes should be the top priority for housing polices for young people, the survey said.

Asked how many times do you go out, 71.1 percent of the respondents said they go out every day.

However, 2.4 percent showed signs of seeking extreme degrees of social isolation, saying they go out only for their hobbies.

kdh@yna.co.kr
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