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[wylies99]

Birth Rate Falling Again
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/08/117_28753.html

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The national birth rate, which increased over the last two years, has begun to fall again, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said Monday.

The figure had increased for 25 consecutive months thanks to a superstitious belief stemming from the ``Year of the Golden Pig,�� which ran from February last year to the same month this year, and ``Saangchunnyon,�� which ran from February 2006 to February last year.

The golden pig year is believed to bring good luck to newborns and Saangchunnyon is considered a good sign for newlyweds, according to fortunetellers. The birth rate, however, has fallen sharply since March this year.

The number of newborns between January and May was 205,800, down 1,300 from the same period last year.

Since recording its lowest birth rate of 1.08 in 2005, the country had seen the number of newborns rise to 1.13 in 2006 and 1.26 last year.

According to the Population Reference Bureau in 2006, South Korea in 2005 had the world�s lowest birth rate along with Taiwan, with an average 1.1 children per woman. The birth rate per 1,000 people was nine and the death rate five, with the population increase rate 0.4 percent.

The rapidly aging society has prompted the government to offer incentives for couples to procreate. The rise in living and education costs, however, has made couples reluctant to have children and many are delaying doing so.

The national population is predicted to fall 13 percent to 42.3 million by 2050 after rising to 49.8 million in 2025.

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[billybrobby]

Kinda reminds me of this science fiction story I once read. Human civilization had advanced to the point we could live in big spaceships far away from the sun, but for some reason, whenever this was attempted, the population simply stopped procreating and lost the will to continue the species.

[jkelly80]

[marlow]

Great. If the whole world's environment were like Korea's, the world would be a very sad place to live.