@@kasikwagoma6740 There is no limit to how much they can buy. Rich people buy jets, buildings, cars etc. They don't have to use it. They can just buy and leave it alone. Take the empty buildings in NYC for example.
The pressure young people are under to succeed is so strong. Not every student will get into a top university. The mental health of those that don’t make it is really sad.
Only woke people complain about this. These kinds of pressure are fine and helps the country a lot overall. Especially countries like Korea/Japan who have no resources.
I had to agree since I traveled through South Korea recently. Even in Busan the second largest city in South Korea the amount of elderly people compared to Seoul is staggering.
I was there for 10 days 3 weeks ago and noticed there were so many elderly people, too. I love the elderly, so we had some conversations. Actually, they initiated it asking about my children and I. It was heartwarming. One said to me... See you later, and she had my heart...lol. She was like a great aunt. We are returning next summer for 3 weeks.
@@yonggeun4222No, because all opportunities and most money are at Seoul. If South Korean want to reduce the urban, they should build and bring those opportunities to other city too. Make big companies with big employees move their head quarters to smaller cities, can be a start.
@@hills863 well can they build companies and other stuff in other cities then? can seriously can busan and jonrado people stop coming to seoul and just stay whereever youre from?
when a nation focus on purely gdp growth in a capitalistic global economy, this is the result. Things like family, dating and work/life balance policies are not being made a priority. If you want people to have children then you have to make having a family easier in cities/country ( healthcare, good education, economic stability and alleviating the burden of children).
But South Korea already has a very high standard of living. In fact, people from developing countries like Philippines and Indonesia travel to SK for work.
That is not what is making the birth rate in South Korea and the rest of the developing world collapse. It's the inter gender dynamics between men and women where women are now expected and encouraged by the state to pursue higher education, career and going up the corporate ladder instead or having getting married early and having family. That combined with the shift from a gold backed currency onto ta fiat currency which has made the cost of living and inflation go through the roof, while making Rich incredibly rich and the poor barely able to survive even on 2 incomes while 3 or 4 generations ago even a single income was enough to support the average family.
If only companies allow 100% remote work for office workers, I'd gladly move out to a small town or a village as long as the internet connection there is good enough. I'm tired of the noise pollution, higher cost of living in a big city anyway..
I can say as an international teacher who worked all over korea.... same internet speeds are everywhere, literally. I lived in big, small cities, villages and north, sd south, east, west coast.
And absolutely correct on their brand obsession. They literally have a docu series showing the designer brands markets that sell fake designer clothes. That's a big thing.
Nowhere in this video did it talk about the fact that there are basically 3 pediatric surgeons in all of South Korea, and very few pediatric doctors, period. Babies and small kids die while waiting to be seen by doctors or while being transported to larger cities during a medical emergency. If the government really wanted to do something about the birth rate, they would get past the doctor strike to push for more pediatric doctors to be matriculated, and then they would INCENTIVIZE population shifts to these abandoned area. Offer grants and move 1,000 people at a time back into these struggling rural towns. But nobody will have kids or move back if there is no healthcare system.
That can't be right can it only 3 pediatricians for the entire country of Korea? That's a dire situation that would shut down entire hospital wards even in Seoul that's not enough surgeons . It's another barrier to making people want to have kids. I hope you're not right about there being only 3 pediatric surgeons in Korea. you're offered solution sounds so reasonable/
@@28naveenator27van From what i've seen, from videos of people in South Korea talking about this topic They work 80+ hours per week and their pay is quite poor, not just for pediatricians but for other specialists too, such as doctors adding onto this. Most of the jobs are really only located in Seoul Couple that with societal pressures + The expensive living cost of South Korea And you have a melting pot that is South korea's population Crisis.
The hierarchy is to blame. 23% successful. 23% failures. Everyone else just struggling. You are your rank in school, the house you live in, the family you have or don’t have, you are the neighborhood you live in. Strongly responsible is the government telling everyone to stop having kids from 1960 on ward. Mandatory military and college for all made everyone postpone family 4-6 years and delay fertility. The older you are when you start a family the fewer children you have, if at all. In 1980 they got to 2.0. They worked everyone to death, no family life. But they kept going. Then in addition the kids ended up in mandatory study until all hours. No one grew up with family. Instead they grew up living off mom and dad until their 30’s. Who wants to support a kid until the kid’s 30’s? The country got greedy with irrational growth. Before you were poor if you could not afford the school fee. Now school is free, lunches free, rice abundant and everyone has several pairs of shoes but it’s too expensive. The only thing that helped delay population decline is elders started to live until 80 instead of 60. Or they would have seen the effects in the 90’s.
It's crazy, but countries around europe are implementing final tests in elementeries now that will decide your highschool, heavily forcing kids at such age to perform well if they want to go where they wish to go and it's not like you are entering for cambridge or oxford or any other major school. just crazy.
Similar to other places, business districts in the Philippines are concentrated in Metro Manila. This centralization drives people from the provinces to migrate to Manila in search of opportunities, leading to skyrocketing prices for goods and housing, severe traffic congestion, widespread pollution, and an overburdened transportation system that struggles to accommodate the daily influx of commuters. The challenges I’ve mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg-there's much more beneath the surface, including issues like crime and poverty.
@@shaider1982 New Clark isn't enough. I think the admins should remove the provincial rate, and remove the red tape when it comes to starting a business. With that Idea in mind Jobs well spread out without needing to start a city from scratch.
Phils have intellectually talented resources, world class. Its got very good laws n business incentives as well. What it sorely lacks is Good Governance.😢
Not the same, South Korea and Japan are dying in the rural areas and are just consolidating in their major cities. It is but natural that people wanting to come out ahead go where the oppurtunities are but even the most distant or remotest places in the Philippines have people, both young and old, in them. People are still having babies by the bundle and a lot are content in their home provinces.
This is a time when people should explore alternative ways of living rather than sticking to traditional paths. I believe that the current trend of pursuing corporate careers and living in expensive cities may not be the most fulfilling. Instead, individuals should consider returning to smaller towns and villages to build a different, more meaningful life
That's not the way parents and society raised these kids. Globally. Not to be extreme but more generations are basically sheep. They are taught to not question and follow a string of policies by the schools and governments. Also with such high stakes and a ever growing nihlism and despair about the future for the world's youth, taking such risks won't appeal to them like that.
Korea started manufacturing their stuff in China, Vietnam and Philippines...eliminating the manufacturing jobs that existed in cities like Daegu, Pohang and Gwangju. Seoul is so insanely overcrowded with 26 of the 52 million population all living in the metro area.
They do, Busan, Samsung, Ulsan, Hyundai engineering, etc etc, just that other than those companies, the big banks, FIs, education, etc etc are all in Seoul.
South Korea is a state created by USA, it is also under complete economic control of USA the chaebols of South Korea transfer some of the wealth they get from Korea to USA, so the economy is structured in such a way that the few chaebols wealth will exponentially explode creating a real estate bubble in the capital helps in this cause
Singapore is heading there as well and deservingly so. Giving baby bonus is not effective when managements and Singapore companies are incentivised to give “poor performance” grading as a guise to working parents with care giving responsibilities whom needs to take paternity or childcare leaves to care for their very young and very old. In other words, the baby bonus given by government is INDIRECTLY being transferred to companies as “COST SAVINGS” since they do not need to pay working parents whom just gave birth any bonus…
@@Strik3Fr33dom2 JB maybe not so much if Malaysians commute daily to instead of move to Singapore, though we have the other challenge of crowded border crossings (I read of some cleaners who sleep only 3h daily due to the time they spend commuting). Also heard though that since blue-collar work in Singapore may pay more than white-collar ones in Malaysia, some people in Malaysia may thus find higher education to be less useful
70% of voters are over 40 years old As a 70 year old politician You will provide policies that benefit older people.Such as increasing taxes for young people to give as pension money and improving health for older people.
This migration to the capital is nothing new. Same thing is happening to Tokyo and Jakarta. In China, people migrate to tier-1 cities leaving the villages empty.
Nah south Korea are extrem case Greater Seoul = 55% south Korea population Greater Busan = 8% south Korea population Greater Tokyo = 28% japan population Greater Osaka = 15% Japan population Greater Nagoya = 9% Japan population Greater jakarta = 12,5% Indonesia population Greater Surabaya = 3,6% Indonesia population Greater bandung = 3,2% Indonesia population
U can see Seoul metro area have 7x population compare to Busan, when Tokyo metro area population only 2x more than Osaka metro area and jakarta metro area population 3,5x more than Surabaya metro area
Kind of, but not entirely true. China has way more places that are economically prosperous. Five tier 1 cities, and 20 some tier 2 cities. If you’ve been to these cities, you would find out they are all more urbanized and grandeur than Seoul
They have tried that but all failed, new cities pop up and they get expensive so fast, it simply doesn't work. Maybe they have to start taking extreme measures like fixing housing otherwise I don't see anything changing.
I know a Cambodian lady that married a Korean and is desperately trying to raise their daughter as korean as much as possible. Several years back, she bought her daughter to Cambodia to meet her extended family. The girl picked up some Khmer phrases and used it in school. The teacher overheard it and summoned her mother to school for a meeting. The meeting was nothing more than a scold down for allowing her daughter to learn Khmer. This lady is now a Korean citizen and is fluent in Korean with a Korean university degree. She works as an official translator for the government. She also, on her own time, helps other Cambodian navigate through the legal system. She dedicate most of time on helping Cambodians collect wages from Korean owners that refuse to pay what is legally required. Korea has problems but a lot of its are of their own making rooted in racism.
In Malaysia, most of the people over here knew the minimum 3 languages. some people even goes up to 4 and 5 languages. Having an extra language is not a humiliation but a strength. People always say learn English is the best but if you doing trade with a certain country where English is not their main tongue, would it be the best? It is actually a burden,
As a Khmer person, I am embarrassed by this comment. I can’t empathize with a person who clearly doesn’t seem to have enough pride in Cambodia as she “desperately trying to raise their daughter as Korean as much as possible”. I hope Cambodia will start to tighten immigration as the economy improves so it too can remain Cambodian. It’s becoming an eyesore to see people with little to zero qualifications teach English while making a comfortable living wage in Cambodia, people who come to live in Cambodia because they’re too poor to live in their own countries and lastly the elderly poor who get involved with local women young enough to be their daughter because the women and their family lack values. Every country has its own issues. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Mind your own business and work to resolve your own problems.
@@TubersAndPotatoes first of all Koreans are really a funny people. They are too obsess with good looks until most of their face are basically identical with each other. They are too obsess with Europeans looks till they look down on the south east asians because their face is not "PRETTY" enough. I do not see any logic on this. There is no standard on defining what is beauty. kindness and compassion is the true beauty compared with the looks
This is happening in all developed nations. As manufacturing, farming and trade jobs disappear...everyone goes to the city for banking, engineering and government jobs while the middle class and lower class go to service the upper class as drivers, servers and retail. And city people do not have as many kids as rural and the vicious cycle goes round and round.
Though Korea & Japan still have a sizable manufacturing industry though (almost 30% of GDP?) with factories being further away from larger cities e.g. I think Busan is home to S Korea's biggest shipbuilders
This looks like it's a global issue. I'm in my late thirties and always thought by now I'd have children and a home of my own. I don't, and can't forsee if I can in the near future. I just don't earn enough. How can I dare to dream of a family when I can barely even look after myself? It's so disheartening that now my dream is to get through life quietly, pass in peace, and hope to never, ever come back to this place.
@m00secat thank you for sharing your experience and perspective. I worry a lot about generations younger than me as I also struggled so much to start a family. I want to send you encouragement that finding someone to build a life together with is possible and an amazing thing. You don't need to have everything to start life and a family. A life is meant to be shared, a family can be two people or 10 people. I hope you find a person who can share your burdens and happy moments together.
Watching this alongside the documentary on Chinese millennials revitalizing rural business presents an interesting comparison. In both South Korea and China, satellite cities and young people are grappling with intense competition. I’m China, many are adopting a "躺平" (lying flat) mindset, which isn't about giving up but rather finding alternative ways to make a living outside the conventional paths. We also see growing government support, on rural revitalization policies, and this theme is echoed in K-dramas and C-dramas aimed at younger audiences. This trend is also inspiring more young people to share their experiences on social media, especially as tourism shifts toward more localized, authentic experiences connected to nature and culture. It’s an intriguing direction that the younger generation seems to be shaping.
My mom's from Busan, the busiest port and 2nd largest city in South Korea, and even she moved north to Seoul for more opportunity. Seoul is draining the rest of Korea out.
It's a somewhat similar issue in the Philippines, where Metro Manila has become the country's focal point, showcasing our population and income imbalance. Though the nation's population growth rate is still high, the migration towards MM increases the disparity.
If you are talking about people flocking to the cities for oppurtunities, that is true in EVERY PART IN THE WORLD! Japan and SK have literally dying rural areas because there are no people except old people, this is not the case in the PHilippines.
Very sad to me that Busan is dying. I hope it can stay vibrant as long as possible.. I can't believe that it has twice as many people over 65 to that of 20s or 30s.
South Korea, has a declining population, but they refuse to change legislation to protect women, the very people responsible for giving birth to kids. Why would I give birth to a kid if I knew that I could not get another job if I left my job, or that I would be discriminated against if I got pregnant? The government refuses to look at the fundamental issue but will give out a $1000 bonus, which is a month's salary if that. Plus, the toxic work culture and the intense social hierarchy mean that young people cannot get ahead despite talent, but the government is scratching their heads about why people are not having kids. It's laughable. Finally, there is the racism that people face in South Korea. Most ageing populations use migration to get immigrants to move to the country and have kids, but Korea is so homogenous and there is intense racism, especially towards poorer Asian countries.
All of that. I've read a lot of Korean women perspectives on blogs and websites about how they as women are treated as compared to males. They have done this to themselves to be fair. So many issues as to what is going on and not one Cork in the pipeline to fix the most important issues and causes
The largest number of foreigners in Korea are Chinese followed by Southeast Asians. The highest number of illegal immigrants is from Southeast Asia, Thailand at 36%, Vietnamese at 18%. If life in Korea was that bad it wouldn't be like that. And the foreign women that Korean men most marry are Vietnamese. They also often marry Filipinos and Thais. ----- Status of Foreign Residents by Nationality (Region) (2024.06.30.) Source: SK Gov Total 2,612,328 Chinese 952,254 Korean Chinese (635,215) Vietnamese 307,487 Thai 190,608 American 190,335 Uzbek 90,800 Russians (Federal) 71,010 Nepalese 68,282 Filipinos 68,250 Indonesian 62,747 Cambodians 62,534 Mongolian 55,802 Kazakhs 45,675 Myanmar 48,569 Japanese 48,567 (Taiwanese) 43,287 Sri Lankans 33,561 Canadians 29,332 Bangladeshis 28,689 Pakistani 17,393 Indian 17,037 Australians 14,001 Malaysians 10,148 Kyrgyzstan 11,084 Other 144,876 ----- Status of Foreign Residents by Nationality (Continent) (2023.12.31.) Total 2,507,584 Asia 2,147,186 North America 189,502 South America 9,021 Europe 113,045 Oceania 24,221 Africa 24,334 ----- Status of illegal immigrants (2024.06.) Total foreigners staying 2,612,328 illegal immigrants 414,730 Illegal stay rate 15.9% ----- Status of illegal immigrants by Nationality (2022.8.22.) Source: SK gov Total 388,700 (100%) Thailand 142,677 (36.7) China 63,113 (16.2) Vietnam 70,411 (18.1) Mongolia 15,969 (4.1) Philippines 13,613 (3.5) Russia 9,486 (2.4) Kazakhstan 9,768 (2.5) Indonesia 9,142 (2.4) Uzbekistan 9,167 (2.4) Cambodia 8,751 (2.3) Others 36,603 (9.4)
International Marriage Statistics of South Korea Source: SK Gov 2022 Total number of international marriages 16,666 Korean man + foreign woman 12,007 Vietnam 3,319 China 2,282 Thailand 1,932 United States 600 Japan 599 Philippines 509 Cambodia 422 Other 2,344 Korean women + foreign men 4,659 United States 1,380 China 750 Vietnam 586 Canada 310 United Kingdom 166 Australia 151 Other 1,316 - Marriages with foreigners were 17,000 an increase of 27.2%(4,000) from the previous year. The proportion of marriages with foreigners among all marriages was 8.7% an increase of 1.9% from the previous year. - The nationalities of foreign wives were Vietnamese(27.6%), Chinese(19.0%) and Thai(16.1%). The nationalities of foreign husbands were American(29.6%), Chinese(16.1%) and Vietnamese (12.6%). ---------- Status of Spouses of Nationals(Married Immigrants) Gender Status by Nationality (2024.06.30.) Source: SK gov Total 178,163 (100%) Male 35,065 (19.7%) Female 143,098 (80.3%) Chinese 60,281 (33.8%) Male 14,062 Female 46,219 Korean Chinese 21,172 Male 8,237 Female 12,935 Vietnamese 41,028 (23.0%) Male 4,754 Female 36,274 Japanese 15,930 (8.9%) Male 1,313 Female 14,617 Filipino 12,687 (7.1%) Male 625 Female 12,062 Thai 9,181 (5.2%) Male 142 Female 9,039 American 5,208 (2.7%) Male 3,523 Female 1,685 Cambodian 4,856 (2.8%) Male 852 Female 4,004 Other 28,992 (16.3%) Male 9,794 Female 19,198 - Marriage Naturalizations (Cumulative) 2018 129,028 2019 135,056 2020 141,773 2021 148,118 2022 154,926 2023 161,357 2024.06. 163,357 - Nationality By the end of June this year, there were 6,205 people who acquired Korean citizenship. The types of nationality acquisition are naturalization for 4,736 people and nationality restoration for 1,469 people. Among naturalized people 2,882(60.9%) were from China and 1,192(25.2%) were from Vietnam. ----- - FYI There are many Korean-Chinese and Chinese people in Korea and there are people who have become naturalized Koreans and are marrying Chinese people. - There are many Vietnamese women who have married Korean men with a large age difference and some of them divorced after naturalization using a marriage visa and remarried Vietnamese men.
"The toxic work culture and intense social hierarchy" I truly felt this line, even if you want to learn further at work, but they set boundaries to young people who strives harder and become better, that's why I'm thinking of searching another opportunities to become better and leave all the bs behind
The working environment is so toxic there in Korea, and you guys expect people to have kids on top of that when everything is expensive as hell, not to mention everyone is focused on status and judgemental that you forget who you are in the first place.
Very interesting report. Here in Taiwan, the pull toward Taipei isn't so strong, in part because of the science parks in Hsinchu, Taichung, and Tainan.
As an American who grew up in a small town working on farms went to college for farming and then I got into agricultural technology startups and for better opportunities I had to live in a pretty big city for 5 or 6 years and it was good in some ways but I pretty much hated it once I sold my company I moved back to where my friends had a farm in rural northern New York and I have found just as much opportunity here with very low cost of living in housing and no young people because they all move to the city There are huge opportunities to take over businesses because all the family members of the businesses left to go to the city for more opportunity. Most are really struggling in the city because it's extremely expensive housing wise and just all cost of living in the job market is extremely competitive a percentage will compete and do extremely well many others will not get ahead. I always said I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
It's a corporate cultural problem that looks down on remote working. Companies want their employees to show up in the offices. It's too bad, because Korea can leverage its excellent internet infrastructure with cloud working, to fix the overconcentration in Seoul due to employment opportunities. If they simply allowed their workers to live anywhere in the country while still being employed online with companies in Seoul, it would instantaneously fix the problem of Seoul sucking the life out of the rest of the country.
No, most popular companies offer remote work systems.Especially, IT companies. However, it can be difficult for manufacturing companies, but it depends on the job.
In Seoul or Busan (and other cities) there are apartments that cost 20 million dollars(corrected in comments), and there are people living in floors below street level in the -1 with only one window. Fix this. Everyone needs a home, when basic needs and wealth distribution is fair, people will have babies.
Singapore doesn't actually have a population crisis like Korea/Japan, since the country here is the only one that is very open to immigration. All the potential population decline in Singapore is offset by the population increase from all the immigrants coming in. Meanwhile Korea/Japan can't solve this problem the same way due to their homogeneity in society. It's also harder when you need learn their native language whereas in Singapore everyone just needs know English
Here is a fun fact for you. Almost all countries except for underdeveloped nations like Africa and India have below replacement level birth rates. That means the population will shrink drastically by 2100. When the population shrinks, the economy shrinks. Anyone with basic common sense knows a shrinking economy is bad news. Lesser jobs, lower salaries, less services, higher taxes, you name it. I don't know about you but I would not want to be part of that world. I am sure glad I won't be around for that mess. That is not even considering the climate catastrophe that will hit hard by 2050. So, hey good luck to your children and your grandchildren. I am sure they will be super happy to inherit all that mess.
Poverty Leads to Overpopulation and Economic Prosper brings Infertility………Countries needs to find balance like some of European countries have found like Swiss, Norway, Netherlands…
That fact that Busan, the 2nd largest city, is at risk of collapse due to depopulation is truly terrifying. Government better figure out a way to decentralize the job market, top universities, earning opportunity from Seoul and QUICKLY. The rural era is absolutely beautiful. It's heartbreaking
This is where the government policy can promote population in the rural area by building hospitals, affordable housing, government offices etc and incentives for private sectors to relocate their head offices to these smaller cities. Without job opportunities, accessible facilities and infrastructure to enable easy transportation around the town this issue will continue to snowball.
I remember being on a bus from the countryside to Seoul, and I saw a lot of empty and abandoned buildings / villages on the way. So I guess it is a really big problem there.
They make living in korea so cool in k shows then a vid like this comes and you thank God for knowing that country only through samsung and k dramas and not through being born and live there
Exactly they portray it very well. And at least Top from Big Bang was HONEST about saying he didn't like south korea. And for many a reason as to what he was dealing with and seeing going on. The rest deed us the lie.
urban areas by nature are fertility depressors. the stress, rush and price factors severely impede population growth. not to mention there is something about human sub conscious on reducing mouths when they are squashed in a very small area with a lot of people. rural areas are the fountain where population flows out.
i use to watch 2 days and 1 night (a korean variety show) where they would travel around the countryside, and in a few episodes they hang out with elderly people and mention the population decline
22:43 Of course money will work. Give every couple a free apartment in Gangnam if they have 2 babies. I guarantee you will see birth rate jump back to normal level. $1400 helps nothing for their financial burden. It is just a token gesture which can't even cover 2 months of private tuition fee. This bonus helps the rich get richer because they have more money to spend on holidays when they will have baby anyway regardless of any bonus.
Who's going to foot in the bills tho? The govt would go bankrupt just simply handing out free condos. Wealth redistribution through fair pay and denormalization of competitive society are the keys.
@@wamnicho Of course. Someone has been paying for the $1400 for each baby as well. It's like poor working class, who won't be benefitted from the scheme, paying a nice holiday trip for the upper class. I am not saying giving out free apartments is practical, just want to emphasis there is no solution but don't say money won't work.
As an outsider looking at Seoul I was slightly disappointed with the rapid destruction of old neighbourhoods and the rapid growth of high-rises, stripping away a lot of the uniqueness and visual appeal of the city but I understand the need to house all the new people and the people to come. I hope they are able to solve the population issues but other countries with more flexible mindsets have not managed to do so.
I don't know what European model you have in mind, but between my Western Europe country and Korea, we are worlds apart when it comes to parenting and birth rates. Korea is ultra liberal as a society, they pay the price of not having a stronger planification.
It’s not the Western model that’s the problem, China’s using a very different economic model and they’re also suffering from a major fertility crisis. People just don’t want to have kids nowadays or if they want it’s only one kid, government policy is unlikely to change that.
very thorough doco on this topic, heaps well reported. i wonder what the burden on the healthcare system will look like in the next coming decades- quality and quantity of healthcare staff, accessibility, meeting demands etc. also funny how none of the experts interviewed were women, says something in itself about the norms and opportunities available
The era has already changed, if the government doesn’t create a good policy to boost birth then we can expect what kind of future will be. I think a sense of good community in rural areas must be started in the first place. More subsidy and government support for farming/ manufacturing, etc. The education cannot be concentrated in Seoul Univ only. This kind of stereotyping of good school is actually killing the young generation’s sense of self safisfaction towards life. Life itself is already challenging, don’t burden them even more
I did work in South Korea, and all the young people live in Seoul, not much in other states. That is why I keep seeing older people when I visit Busan. 2019
There was an explosion of wealth in the 60s and 70s that made these rural areas possible in the first place. As money gets harder to make and things become more expensive, people have to crowd around rich people(which is what cities are) and service them. Before that these rural areas were incredibly poor and backwards. So while this is a shock to modern people, this is really just a return to normal. The birthrate is affected because people are conditioned to expect a certain lifestyle, not because raising or educating a child is expensive. Mental health, despair etc all stem from this.
Their too stupidly stubborn to change. They are their own worst enemy just undoing themselves at this point. And the press just stays reporting. The press are not fundi g nothing. There's no International rallying or movement. Of any kind. And there they stay stubborn.
Developed countries & some developing countries become developed are facing the aging population & low birthrate terms of uncertain economy,highghiving cost,low payment salaries even I malaysian also same problem as the rest of other asian countries but thanks credit to politican & leaders for caused with heavy respondbilities
Seoul is worse when it comes to population density than Tokyo, because its size it’s much smaller but with more people, and you feel it. Everything is so cramped, the city is so busy, so much traffic. I think the overpopulation in the capital will become even worse. I don’t see it getting better to be honest.
I don't see the reason to be alarmed about low fertility rates anywhere in this world. South Koreans in particular are very highly educated and they know it's a bad idea to bring children if they know that they cannot provide a stable household. The highly competitive job market, expensive housing market, and generally high cost of living means that there is general high demand for low supply. What is needed is a correction which is already happening. Once there are fewer home buyers, the housing prices will fall as housing stock goes up. Once there are less workers, employers will have to be less picky on who to hire and offer higher compensation packages. Once demand for goods fall because of lower population, prices will have to fall as well.
@@alfi-il7be you think Africans will stop breeding because Koreans have stopped “to help earth breath” they will come and take over those lands, that’s how the law of nature works
discrimination is not only a problem for Koreans, but there are also many criminal acts committed by foreign workers. Numerous illegal immigrants, driving unregistered and uninsured vehicles(90% of them drive unregistered vehicle), and they dealing with drugs.
Humanity should take careful note of South Korea's dire demographic predicament. This is the natural by-product of hyper-capitalism, hyper-competitiveness, hyper-consumerism, and hyper-individualism. Marriage rates plummet. Fertility and birth rates plummet. Soon, the nation, people, and society will disintegrate and fall apart.
I wish there was an interview with a younger person living in the rural area. Although they touched on it, it would have been nice to hear from an actual person about their experience and why they are still living in the country side
Two extremes. From the pressures of We to the freedom of Me. From We to Me culture. Where’s the balance? The solution can’t swing from one extreme to the other, you end up with the same problem.
Japan's birth rate is low as well comparable to SK. This explains Japan's lower house costs (ua-cam.com/video/geex7KY3S7c/v-deo.html , ua-cam.com/video/d6ATBK3A_BY/v-deo.html ) TLDR it's a combination of very good zoning laws along with depopulation. The Vienna model is increasingly becoming popular as well in context of implementing affordable housing policies.
The Silicone Valley in California exists thanks to Stanford University. Boston continues to be admired and respected thanks to the best and brightest of Harvard. The brains of a country cannot be at a single location. I guess the CEOs of Samsung and Kia were too busy making money. Seoul may look alive and strong and attractive to others. It reminds me of Charlie Chaplin movies about man and machine. I don’t envy the young and feel sorry for the middle aged. As for the over 65 they are fortunate because Korea has beautiful Nature. Be at home with nature-that’s the secret of Happiness for any human.
Is the same in Vietnam everyone is trying to come to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh city. But at least, we have 2 cities to divide. Overcrowded cities, properties skyrocketting, air pollution and traffic jams are widespread
Fortunately in Singapore we a a city state and it's not too far to get around the whole Singapore. We won't have this issue but we also have the issue of low birth rate.
70% of voters are over 40 years old As a 70 year old politician You will provide policies that benefit older people.Such as increasing taxes for young people to give as pension money and improving health for older people.
At least, despite the balance tipping heavily towards Seoul, the rest of South Korea is still first world by international standards. Meanwhile in the Philippines, Manila is very similar to Seoul being the center of everything, but the rest of the country sadly is still very much third world despite the Philippines having a head start in terms of development.
I wonder why the world is so concerned over Korea and Japan's birthrates, I don't see this mass hysteria over Italy's birthrate which is even lowe than Japan, villages are becoming ghost towns and Italy is not as pro immigration as other european countries, Meloni is trying to make it harder for immigrants to go there, so Italy has the same problem, Spain and Finland also have crazy low birthrates and not enough immigration, but nobody seems to care, it makes me wonder why is everyone so obsessed over East Asian demographics 👀
Hint: US military bases and America’s best friends N. Korea, China and Russia are all right there. Especially if both populations incredibly shrink and can’t even protect themselves, it’s more of a burden to protect them. Nobody is concerned about Italy because it’s surrounded by Allies. I feel like this is way more geopolitical reasoning than these documentaries point out. People will always have kids and live in those countries, they’ll just be more empty much like Australia and Canada and Mongolia etc. That’s just my simple opinion though.
Yep there is a thing about abandoned Japanese homes. Asia took declining fertility to heart. Because of how their areas were affected by occupation and the world war and more recent wars. Most the earth lives in Asia. While the west was worried about the population explosion it turned into a lie. There is a population implosion. Japan and Korea really don’t immigrants into the country. We see economies stall with this. War is often an option when this happens. Basically you don’t want 5 for the army like Russia or only 1 child like China. Korea wanted 0-2 but did not make a law about it. They did convince people to get sterilized for the good of the country. Groups of neighbors would do it together. Like Americans giving blood after 9/11. So many girl babies aborted in Korea that for a time it was illegal to tell gender and people had illegal ultrasounds. If most people decided to have 6 it would be a problem. Less than 2 for a prolonged period is also a problem. World fertility is at 2.4 with 2.1 being replacement. The earth isn’t replacing people.
Because unlike Italy (where they don't make really anything hi tech in the modern world)...Japan and Korea are key pillars in the modern world. Italy can literally disappear tomorrow and no one in the US would even give much care. But you take away Korea and Samsung, LG, etc....are all gone
The government needs to make laws to end this favoritism of Seoul university’s. Like making company’s hire 10% people from other parts as well or something like that. There must be something to do. The government needs to take big action in some kind of way
As a rural southern American i get it no jobss for miles no activities to keep you happy for milesssss education sysstem is so bad and if you're a certain race then your schools won't be funded here it's so stressful and depressing the grocery stores arent diverse at all
All East Asian nations move towards similar situation. Whatever you say, Korean families won't be able to have 5-7 kids like they had in 50-70s, 3-5 kids like they had in 80-90s. The population once has been drastically overblown, now slowly coming to the average of morden highly developed nations.
There is an easy fix to not let real estate prices grow, don't limit the housing supply. It is as simple as that. If you allow to build houses anywhere and everywhere, demand and supply will match and there won't be any need for controlling housing prices. This is the case everywhere, any country on earth can fix their soaring real estate prices by allowing more construction of houses and increasing housing supply. Prices rise because of high demand and low availability.
@@Lalit-yw2tb why would they built a lot of houses, when the population is already declining.. like whose buying that.. it's more likely that would be empty like there's a lot of empty real estate in china
It looks like the same problem is one that no government want to address. Cost of living is too high. Everyone is very competitive -- limiting free time to mingle and marry. A single wage cannot support a family, so you need both incomes to support their living, thus delaying or no child.
Money isn't the root cause. The root cause is teaching children that their ancestors were pond scum millions of years ago, and that humans are ruining the planet now.
Implement laws in favor of stay home women to earn a salary to take care about the house and a kid. Taking care about a home and a baby is phisical and mental labour . It is a job. Is this a utopia? You'll see how things will change. Ah.
I think the people of South Korea just have to adjust to the declining population. Production will have to go down. Consumption will also go down. The whole economy will size down proportionally. The lack of economic growth is only a problem if you expect infinite growth in a finite world. The government has to get involved more heavily from now. Because there are a limited number of youths born now, the government has to plan ahead for the youth's future. Then when the youths grow up, they will receive government job placements and replace the old population proportionally. A lot of the older generation will die childless, leaving behind assets for the nieces and nephews and distant relatives and friends. This will just help the younger generation have an increase in per-capita wealth.
That'd be a hypothesis of development, but such rapid decline in particular can strain resources which could worsen demographics more in a cycle, it's a wrong assumption that because a population declines you'll have more resources shared among fewer as it's largely the people themself that create the resources , though technology does intervene a bit, the legitimate question isn't if you can have economic growth, it'd be about whether you can retain the services which the society provides within agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare and so on
humans are instictively wanted to have a family and reproduce if they're living a good and happy life. this should not be a question when the government of that country is obviously the main contributing factor to the population crisis issue. population crisis is the most direct result of poor quality society and governance as a whole. the country itself could be doing better or more wealthy than some other countries but this doesn't mean that the people are living a better quality life than others so the country itself doing well is not the best measurement to evaluate their actual performance from a citizen's standpoint.
I was also surprised to see so many elderly people collecting recyclables or selling homewares, food, vegetables etc. It's like one has to work in a corporation to retire properly, and everyone else has to fend for themselves till they die?
I studied abroad in Seoul. I loved it! I’m pretty sure if I stayed, I would’ve never gotten married and have children. There’s just so much to do and see! I hope South Korea does not depend on migrant workers mainly because all countries birth rates are dropping quickly. Soon there won’t be any migrants. Countries with quickly declining populations will be the ones sending the workers since there won’t be any jobs for their youth. The reason why giving money doesn’t increase birth rates is because people have children when life is hard, not when life is enjoyable. I know many people who make great money, they don’t want children because they view children as a burden. It’s sad but that’s how many people think! There is no other time in history where access to food, clean water, suitable shelter and clothing is at an all time high. Now the standard for children is a big enough house (each child must have their own bedroom), extra tutoring (public education is free) and vacations. With those standards, most people will never be able to afford kids.
People have children when life is STABLE. People had lots of children years ago, because life was stable and predictable. There were jobs for life, usually a house to live in and so were the people around them. Stability is a necessary element that enables people to have children. Today there isn't any stability. Jobs can be lost on a whim, and with it your house and money to support your family. Those stabilities have disappeared. If you ask smart young couples why they're not having children, the answers usually come down to stability issues. Do we have a house? Children are a very long term commitment - will we be able to support our children until they can support themselves? Will we be able to give our children good enough opportunities? Will we be able to spend enough time with them anyway, if we had them? Jobs and income is no longer stable. Houses require a massive investment that is easily lost if even one partner's job is lost. Years ago households only required one income and that income was stable - usually a job for life. And a wife's income was extra, luxury money. Now both husbands AND wife's incomes are required just to SURVIVE. That's not stable, particularly in today's job market where companies can just sack people on a whim, and the sacking of either partner is disaster. These stabilities that people enjoyed, meaning that they could be sure of being able to support children over at least 2 decades has been almost totally eroded. So now the only people who tend to have children are the very rich, who can afford them, and the very poor, who don't have the education to realise the problems. THIS is why this is a problem in every developed country. All developed countries have THIS problem, where people struggle just to survive, can't be sure they'll still have a job or a house next week, and if they ARE sure, they're working 60 hour weeks to maintain it, so they wouldn't get to see their children often anyway. What intelligent people would have children under these circumstances? We need to replace that stability: make sure housing is not only affordable but sustainable to pay off over a long term. And for that we need STABLE jobs where companies aren't hiring and firing on a whim. We also need work-life balance so that people can actually breath enough to have the energy to have children, and the time to have children and spend time with them without having to work 60 hour weeks just to survive. All this has happened because of capitalism. The filthy rich have been squeezing more and more out of the rest of the world over the last 3 or 4 decades. That squeeze created the housing problems, the low rates of pay (requiring two incomes to buy less than half of what one income once bought), longer working hours that also contain exhausting competition to maintain, and then both parents have to come home and maintain their house too, (which used to be a full time job for one person, so there was more time to spend at night and weekends with children). Capitalism isn't all bad, but it did create this - a dog-eat-dog world where people have to work so hard to survive in an unstable world that having children is waaaaay down the list of things they can focus on. A problem that is only getting worse with each year. Fix THIS problem and the birthrate problem all goes away on it's own with no extra effort.
If birth control existed 300 years ago, they would’ve taken advantage of it like us now. People have been trying to controlling pregnancy or sex w/o pregnancy for centuries with herbs, pull out and etc and basically just hoped it worked. And the world cant depend on exponential growth forever, we’re just going back to the population numbers before the baby boomers.
@@Callsign-Blade_RunnerSG The problem is not about birth rate. The problem is internal population migration that people move to city where the jobs are located.
It's not even an exaggeration. On it's current trajectory there will be about 4 South Koreans left for every 100 alive today in that time frame. That's about 2 million left from 52 million
Waste and resource ownership imbalance is the main problem in the world right now. Corruption, greed, deception, etc are causing all this. One person is WAY TOO RICH to set the lives of his family for generations, while 1000 others can barely survive. I'm not saying such people should give all their money to everyone else, but laws and rules should not allow such people exist (or reach that super-rich status), and allow better distribution of opportunity. If this keeps up, we're back to monarchy, and have kings and queens again.
@@TheMrleeyang yeah i probably want a hybrid capitalist-socialist society. might not work. evidently capitalism alone doesn't work. socialism alone doesn't work. actually, it seems nothing works (permanently) as long as humans have an insatiable greed.
The reasons were not similar in any way, but i grew up in Metro Detroit. Let me tell you, after the 60s, Detroit is not somewhere anyone wants to live. City services are basically non-existent. Property taxes are massively high. Crime is ridiculous. The population is v small and spread out with large spaces of abandoned and destroyed areas. It's sad to see it in Detroit. Seeing it in an entire country will be devastating. Living here for the 40 years of my life, i can honestly say, i can't see a rejuvenation for Detroit. They are attempting a revitalization, but if S.Korea gets to Detroit's level blight... not good.
You can replace workers with machines. But machines cannot become consumers.
You can have rich people spend more to compensate...
@@zfranke3domethere is only so much they can buy.
@@kasikwagoma6740 There is no limit to how much they can buy. Rich people buy jets, buildings, cars etc. They don't have to use it. They can just buy and leave it alone. Take the empty buildings in NYC for example.
@@kasikwagoma6740true, so they should just make the rich PAY more for their goods & services.
Tell me you don’t know basic economics without telling me you have no clue about economics 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
The pressure young people are under to succeed is so strong. Not every student will get into a top university. The mental health of those that don’t make it is really sad.
Only woke people complain about this. These kinds of pressure are fine and helps the country a lot overall. Especially countries like Korea/Japan who have no resources.
Pressure might help GDP but not mental health, man. South Korea has one of the highest suicide rate in OECD
can NON SEOUL people stop freakin coming to seoul and stay at busan or wheverever youre from?
8:34 please STOP coming to SEOUL and stay at your area like please
please stop sending your kids to HAGWONS
Same thing is happening in Tokyo.
It absorbs everything as the country’s population is shrinking 😢
Also same as one of the comments here, Tokyo companies gaslight pregnant workers in a bid to replace them permanently, just because they got pregnant.
Yep, thus the fake high gdp of the Tokyo area. The entire county’s industries are concentrated in one “city”
They need Islam.
@@supernova7966the last thing another country full of poverty and extremism.
I had to agree since I traveled through South Korea recently. Even in Busan the second largest city in South Korea the amount of elderly people compared to Seoul is staggering.
I was there for 10 days 3 weeks ago and noticed there were so many elderly people, too. I love the elderly, so we had some conversations. Actually, they initiated it asking about my children and I. It was heartwarming. One said to me... See you later, and she had my heart...lol. She was like a great aunt. We are returning next summer for 3 weeks.
can NON SEOUL people stop freakin coming to seoul and stay at busan or wheverever youre from?
@@yonggeun4222No, everyone has a right to travel where they want.
@@yonggeun4222No, because all opportunities and most money are at Seoul. If South Korean want to reduce the urban, they should build and bring those opportunities to other city too. Make big companies with big employees move their head quarters to smaller cities, can be a start.
@@hills863 well can they build companies and other stuff in other cities then? can seriously can busan and jonrado people stop coming to seoul and just stay whereever youre from?
when a nation focus on purely gdp growth in a capitalistic global economy, this is the result. Things like family, dating and work/life balance policies are not being made a priority. If you want people to have children then you have to make having a family easier in cities/country ( healthcare, good education, economic stability and alleviating the burden of children).
But South Korea already has a very high standard of living. In fact, people from developing countries like Philippines and Indonesia travel to SK for work.
@@Hananya_Naftali_Bennett its not standard of living. Its illusion of high standard of living. They spent so much to showcase how rich they are
That is not what is making the birth rate in South Korea and the rest of the developing world collapse.
It's the inter gender dynamics between men and women where women are now expected and encouraged by the state to pursue higher education, career and going up the corporate ladder instead or having getting married early and having family.
That combined with the shift from a gold backed currency onto ta fiat currency which has made the cost of living and inflation go through the roof, while making Rich incredibly rich and the poor barely able to survive even on 2 incomes while 3 or 4 generations ago even a single income was enough to support the average family.
@@Hananya_Naftali_Bennett You are describing the effects of what @t0astz said.. unfortunately that is the price of economic boom.
@@Hananya_Naftali_Bennettstandard of living =/= quality of living. Japan also has a high standard of living but everyone is overworked and underpaid
If only companies allow 100% remote work for office workers, I'd gladly move out to a small town or a village as long as the internet connection there is good enough. I'm tired of the noise pollution, higher cost of living in a big city anyway..
I can say as an international teacher who worked all over korea.... same internet speeds are everywhere, literally. I lived in big, small cities, villages and north, sd south, east, west coast.
But then companies will be paying rent for empty office buildings if everyone worked from home
Adapt or perish @@wamnicho
@@ArifWiwitan 💯
They have really fast internet.
Because they're obsessed with Brands, Life style and beauty standards.
And absolutely correct on their brand obsession. They literally have a docu series showing the designer brands markets that sell fake designer clothes. That's a big thing.
일자리가 직장에 없어요
Nowhere in this video did it talk about the fact that there are basically 3 pediatric surgeons in all of South Korea, and very few pediatric doctors, period. Babies and small kids die while waiting to be seen by doctors or while being transported to larger cities during a medical emergency. If the government really wanted to do something about the birth rate, they would get past the doctor strike to push for more pediatric doctors to be matriculated, and then they would INCENTIVIZE population shifts to these abandoned area. Offer grants and move 1,000 people at a time back into these struggling rural towns. But nobody will have kids or move back if there is no healthcare system.
That can't be right can it only 3 pediatricians for the entire country of Korea? That's a dire situation that would shut down entire hospital wards even in Seoul that's not enough surgeons . It's another barrier to making people want to have kids. I hope you're not right about there being only 3 pediatric surgeons in Korea. you're offered solution sounds so reasonable/
@@28naveenator27van From what i've seen, from videos of people in South Korea talking about this topic
They work 80+ hours per week and their pay is quite poor, not just for pediatricians
but for other specialists too, such as doctors adding onto this. Most of the jobs are really only located in Seoul
Couple that with societal pressures + The expensive living cost of South Korea
And you have a melting pot that is South korea's population Crisis.
@@28naveenator27van A pediatrician and a pediatric surgeon are not the same thing, btw.
@@Cantonnoodles1x1😂😂한국은,법률로,ㅣ주 52시간 제한이 있고, 최저 시급은 일본하고 같다 😂😂
The hierarchy is to blame. 23% successful. 23% failures. Everyone else just struggling. You are your rank in school, the house you live in, the family you have or don’t have, you are the neighborhood you live in. Strongly responsible is the government telling everyone to stop having kids from 1960 on ward. Mandatory military and college for all made everyone postpone family 4-6 years and delay fertility. The older you are when you start a family the fewer children you have, if at all. In 1980 they got to 2.0. They worked everyone to death, no family life. But they kept going. Then in addition the kids ended up in mandatory study until all hours. No one grew up with family. Instead they grew up living off mom and dad until their 30’s. Who wants to support a kid until the kid’s 30’s? The country got greedy with irrational growth. Before you were poor if you could not afford the school fee. Now school is free, lunches free, rice abundant and everyone has several pairs of shoes but it’s too expensive. The only thing that helped delay population decline is elders started to live until 80 instead of 60. Or they would have seen the effects in the 90’s.
SK is already a highly dystopian society. It just doesnt look like it because its hidden under their politeness.
It's crazy, but countries around europe are implementing final tests in elementeries now that will decide your highschool, heavily forcing kids at such age to perform well if they want to go where they wish to go and it's not like you are entering for cambridge or oxford or any other major school. just crazy.
Rice ain’t abundant any more
@@lordlee6473 yes it is.
Similar to other places, business districts in the Philippines are concentrated in Metro Manila. This centralization drives people from the provinces to migrate to Manila in search of opportunities, leading to skyrocketing prices for goods and housing, severe traffic congestion, widespread pollution, and an overburdened transportation system that struggles to accommodate the daily influx of commuters. The challenges I’ve mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg-there's much more beneath the surface, including issues like crime and poverty.
Yeah, Philippines' has a problem with most developments centered om Metro Manila. Though alternate areas like Clark and New Clark are being developed.
@@shaider1982 New Clark isn't enough. I think the admins should remove the provincial rate, and remove the red tape when it comes to starting a business. With that Idea in mind Jobs well spread out without needing to start a city from scratch.
Phils have intellectually talented resources, world class. Its got very good laws n business incentives as well. What it sorely lacks is Good Governance.😢
Not the same, South Korea and Japan are dying in the rural areas and are just consolidating in their major cities. It is but natural that people wanting to come out ahead go where the oppurtunities are but even the most distant or remotest places in the Philippines have people, both young and old, in them. People are still having babies by the bundle and a lot are content in their home provinces.
This is a time when people should explore alternative ways of living rather than sticking to traditional paths. I believe that the current trend of pursuing corporate careers and living in expensive cities may not be the most fulfilling. Instead, individuals should consider returning to smaller towns and villages to build a different, more meaningful life
And then those rural areas will also become cities
how can i find a job in a rural area???
@pepik121 invent one.
For some parents status is more imp and they will not allow their kids specially in Asian countries or even south Asian.
That's not the way parents and society raised these kids. Globally. Not to be extreme but more generations are basically sheep. They are taught to not question and follow a string of policies by the schools and governments.
Also with such high stakes and a ever growing nihlism and despair about the future for the world's youth, taking such risks won't appeal to them like that.
They should encourage private companies to relocate to other parts of the country that’s one way to entice people away from Seoul.
Companies relocated their factories to foreign countries.
Korea started manufacturing their stuff in China, Vietnam and Philippines...eliminating the manufacturing jobs that existed in cities like Daegu, Pohang and Gwangju. Seoul is so insanely overcrowded with 26 of the 52 million population all living in the metro area.
They do, Busan, Samsung, Ulsan, Hyundai engineering, etc etc, just that other than those companies, the big banks, FIs, education, etc etc are all in Seoul.
South Korea is a state created by USA, it is also under complete economic control of USA the chaebols of South Korea transfer some of the wealth they get from Korea to USA, so the economy is structured in such a way that the few chaebols wealth will exponentially explode creating a real estate bubble in the capital helps in this cause
8:34 please STOP coming to SEOUL and stay at your area like please
Singapore is heading there as well and deservingly so. Giving baby bonus is not effective when managements and Singapore companies are incentivised to give “poor performance” grading as a guise to working parents with care giving responsibilities whom needs to take paternity or childcare leaves to care for their very young and very old.
In other words, the baby bonus given by government is INDIRECTLY being transferred to companies as “COST SAVINGS” since they do not need to pay working parents whom just gave birth any bonus…
.. deserving so … 😯!
I’ll give a clue for one of the companies having such underhanded practices.
ST Engineering Aerospace Defence Services is one of those…
if you compare this to this video, is Johor and KL losing their population (mainly Chinese) to Singapore.
@@Strik3Fr33dom2 JB maybe not so much if Malaysians commute daily to instead of move to Singapore, though we have the other challenge of crowded border crossings (I read of some cleaners who sleep only 3h daily due to the time they spend commuting). Also heard though that since blue-collar work in Singapore may pay more than white-collar ones in Malaysia, some people in Malaysia may thus find higher education to be less useful
70% of voters are over 40 years old As a 70 year old politician You will provide policies that benefit older people.Such as increasing taxes for young people to give as pension money and improving health for older people.
same Malaysia also 70 /60 above year old politician
But eventually those old people will have no one left to look after them in the long run
Scariest they will do is force young people to fight their wars because there aren't enough volunteers anymore
In America, young people don't care as much about higher education but it is the higher cost of living that is causing nobody to want to have kids.
This migration to the capital is nothing new. Same thing is happening to Tokyo and Jakarta. In China, people migrate to tier-1 cities leaving the villages empty.
@@baha3alshamari152 I know that! Duh?!! Read my statement again. Don't embarrass yourself if you can't read.
Nah south Korea are extrem case
Greater Seoul = 55% south Korea population
Greater Busan = 8% south
Korea population
Greater Tokyo = 28% japan population
Greater Osaka = 15% Japan population
Greater Nagoya = 9% Japan population
Greater jakarta = 12,5% Indonesia population
Greater Surabaya = 3,6% Indonesia population
Greater bandung = 3,2% Indonesia population
U can see Seoul metro area have 7x population compare to Busan, when Tokyo metro area population only 2x more than Osaka metro area and jakarta metro area population 3,5x more than Surabaya metro area
This is true to almost every country sadly.
Kind of, but not entirely true. China has way more places that are economically prosperous. Five tier 1 cities, and 20 some tier 2 cities. If you’ve been to these cities, you would find out they are all more urbanized and grandeur than Seoul
the problem seems to be seoul is like the center of all opprtunities, they should focus on establishing a secondary or third capital cities
They have tried that but all failed, new cities pop up and they get expensive so fast, it simply doesn't work. Maybe they have to start taking extreme measures like fixing housing otherwise I don't see anything changing.
I know a Cambodian lady that married a Korean and is desperately trying to raise their daughter as korean as much as possible. Several years back, she bought her daughter to Cambodia to meet her extended family. The girl picked up some Khmer phrases and used it in school. The teacher overheard it and summoned her mother to school for a meeting. The meeting was nothing more than a scold down for allowing her daughter to learn Khmer.
This lady is now a Korean citizen and is fluent in Korean with a Korean university degree. She works as an official translator for the government. She also, on her own time, helps other Cambodian navigate through the legal system. She dedicate most of time on helping Cambodians collect wages from Korean owners that refuse to pay what is legally required.
Korea has problems but a lot of its are of their own making rooted in racism.
blaming korea is kind of a sports now. why you bring up racism here? its about population decline. and racism probably exist in your country too
In Malaysia, most of the people over here knew the minimum 3 languages. some people even goes up to 4 and 5 languages. Having an extra language is not a humiliation but a strength. People always say learn English is the best but if you doing trade with a certain country where English is not their main tongue, would it be the best? It is actually a burden,
As a Khmer person, I am embarrassed by this comment. I can’t empathize with a person who clearly doesn’t seem to have enough pride in Cambodia as she “desperately trying to raise their daughter as Korean as much as possible”. I hope Cambodia will start to tighten immigration as the economy improves so it too can remain Cambodian. It’s becoming an eyesore to see people with little to zero qualifications teach English while making a comfortable living wage in Cambodia, people who come to live in Cambodia because they’re too poor to live in their own countries and lastly the elderly poor who get involved with local women young enough to be their daughter because the women and their family lack values. Every country has its own issues. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Mind your own business and work to resolve your own problems.
Yes, Korean racism and racial superiority complex is a very real thing.
@@TubersAndPotatoes first of all Koreans are really a funny people. They are too obsess with good looks until most of their face are basically identical with each other.
They are too obsess with Europeans looks till they look down on the south east asians because their face is not "PRETTY" enough. I do not see any logic on this. There is no standard on defining what is beauty. kindness and compassion is the true beauty compared with the looks
This is happening in all developed nations. As manufacturing, farming and trade jobs disappear...everyone goes to the city for banking, engineering and government jobs while the middle class and lower class go to service the upper class as drivers, servers and retail. And city people do not have as many kids as rural and the vicious cycle goes round and round.
People are taught that their ancestors were pond scum millions of years ago, so see no need to have kids.
Though Korea & Japan still have a sizable manufacturing industry though (almost 30% of GDP?) with factories being further away from larger cities e.g. I think Busan is home to S Korea's biggest shipbuilders
This looks like it's a global issue. I'm in my late thirties and always thought by now I'd have children and a home of my own. I don't, and can't forsee if I can in the near future. I just don't earn enough. How can I dare to dream of a family when I can barely even look after myself? It's so disheartening that now my dream is to get through life quietly, pass in peace, and hope to never, ever come back to this place.
Los Angeles here.. yeah it's terrible. Something needs to change.
❤❤❤hugs from rural Korea 😊
@m00secat thank you for sharing your experience and perspective. I worry a lot about generations younger than me as I also struggled so much to start a family. I want to send you encouragement that finding someone to build a life together with is possible and an amazing thing. You don't need to have everything to start life and a family. A life is meant to be shared, a family can be two people or 10 people. I hope you find a person who can share your burdens and happy moments together.
That's exactly my dream
Watching this alongside the documentary on Chinese millennials revitalizing rural business presents an interesting comparison. In both South Korea and China, satellite cities and young people are grappling with intense competition. I’m China, many are adopting a "躺平" (lying flat) mindset, which isn't about giving up but rather finding alternative ways to make a living outside the conventional paths. We also see growing government support, on rural revitalization policies, and this theme is echoed in K-dramas and C-dramas aimed at younger audiences. This trend is also inspiring more young people to share their experiences on social media, especially as tourism shifts toward more localized, authentic experiences connected to nature and culture. It’s an intriguing direction that the younger generation seems to be shaping.
First of all Huge respect for the Chinese. And the Chinese mindset. I like how you as a group are solution based in your collective thinking.
My mom's from Busan, the busiest port and 2nd largest city in South Korea, and even she moved north to Seoul for more opportunity. Seoul is draining the rest of Korea out.
It's a somewhat similar issue in the Philippines, where Metro Manila has become the country's focal point, showcasing our population and income imbalance. Though the nation's population growth rate is still high, the migration towards MM increases the disparity.
If you are talking about people flocking to the cities for oppurtunities, that is true in EVERY PART IN THE WORLD! Japan and SK have literally dying rural areas because there are no people except old people, this is not the case in the PHilippines.
Very sad to me that Busan is dying. I hope it can stay vibrant as long as possible.. I can't believe that it has twice as many people over 65 to that of 20s or 30s.
South Korea, has a declining population, but they refuse to change legislation to protect women, the very people responsible for giving birth to kids. Why would I give birth to a kid if I knew that I could not get another job if I left my job, or that I would be discriminated against if I got pregnant? The government refuses to look at the fundamental issue but will give out a $1000 bonus, which is a month's salary if that. Plus, the toxic work culture and the intense social hierarchy mean that young people cannot get ahead despite talent, but the government is scratching their heads about why people are not having kids. It's laughable. Finally, there is the racism that people face in South Korea. Most ageing populations use migration to get immigrants to move to the country and have kids, but Korea is so homogenous and there is intense racism, especially towards poorer Asian countries.
All of that. I've read a lot of Korean women perspectives on blogs and websites about how they as women are treated as compared to males. They have done this to themselves to be fair. So many issues as to what is going on and not one Cork in the pipeline to fix the most important issues and causes
The largest number of foreigners in Korea are Chinese followed by Southeast Asians. The highest number of illegal immigrants is from Southeast Asia, Thailand at 36%, Vietnamese at 18%. If life in Korea was that bad it wouldn't be like that. And the foreign women that Korean men most marry are Vietnamese. They also often marry Filipinos and Thais.
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Status of Foreign Residents by Nationality (Region) (2024.06.30.)
Source: SK Gov
Total 2,612,328
Chinese 952,254
Korean Chinese (635,215)
Vietnamese 307,487
Thai 190,608
American 190,335
Uzbek 90,800
Russians (Federal) 71,010
Nepalese 68,282
Filipinos 68,250
Indonesian 62,747
Cambodians 62,534
Mongolian 55,802
Kazakhs 45,675
Myanmar 48,569
Japanese 48,567
(Taiwanese) 43,287
Sri Lankans 33,561
Canadians 29,332
Bangladeshis 28,689
Pakistani 17,393
Indian 17,037
Australians 14,001
Malaysians 10,148
Kyrgyzstan 11,084
Other 144,876
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Status of Foreign Residents by Nationality (Continent) (2023.12.31.)
Total 2,507,584
Asia 2,147,186
North America 189,502
South America 9,021
Europe 113,045
Oceania 24,221
Africa 24,334
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Status of illegal immigrants (2024.06.)
Total foreigners staying 2,612,328
illegal immigrants 414,730
Illegal stay rate 15.9%
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Status of illegal immigrants by Nationality (2022.8.22.)
Source: SK gov
Total 388,700 (100%)
Thailand 142,677 (36.7)
China 63,113 (16.2)
Vietnam 70,411 (18.1)
Mongolia 15,969 (4.1)
Philippines 13,613 (3.5)
Russia 9,486 (2.4)
Kazakhstan 9,768 (2.5)
Indonesia 9,142 (2.4)
Uzbekistan 9,167 (2.4)
Cambodia 8,751 (2.3)
Others 36,603 (9.4)
International Marriage Statistics of South Korea
Source: SK Gov
2022 Total number of international marriages 16,666
Korean man + foreign woman 12,007
Vietnam 3,319
China 2,282
Thailand 1,932
United States 600
Japan 599
Philippines 509
Cambodia 422
Other 2,344
Korean women + foreign men 4,659
United States 1,380
China 750
Vietnam 586
Canada 310
United Kingdom 166
Australia 151
Other 1,316
- Marriages with foreigners were 17,000 an increase of 27.2%(4,000) from the previous year.
The proportion of marriages with foreigners among all marriages was 8.7% an increase of 1.9% from the previous year.
- The nationalities of foreign wives were Vietnamese(27.6%), Chinese(19.0%) and Thai(16.1%).
The nationalities of foreign husbands were American(29.6%), Chinese(16.1%) and Vietnamese (12.6%).
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Status of Spouses of Nationals(Married Immigrants)
Gender Status by Nationality (2024.06.30.)
Source: SK gov
Total 178,163 (100%)
Male 35,065 (19.7%)
Female 143,098 (80.3%)
Chinese 60,281 (33.8%)
Male 14,062
Female 46,219
Korean Chinese 21,172
Male 8,237
Female 12,935
Vietnamese 41,028 (23.0%)
Male 4,754
Female 36,274
Japanese 15,930 (8.9%)
Male 1,313
Female 14,617
Filipino 12,687 (7.1%)
Male 625
Female 12,062
Thai 9,181 (5.2%)
Male 142
Female 9,039
American 5,208 (2.7%)
Male 3,523
Female 1,685
Cambodian 4,856 (2.8%)
Male 852
Female 4,004
Other 28,992 (16.3%)
Male 9,794
Female 19,198
- Marriage Naturalizations (Cumulative)
2018 129,028
2019 135,056
2020 141,773
2021 148,118
2022 154,926
2023 161,357
2024.06. 163,357
- Nationality
By the end of June this year, there were 6,205 people who acquired Korean citizenship. The types of nationality acquisition are naturalization for 4,736 people and nationality restoration for 1,469 people. Among naturalized people 2,882(60.9%) were from China and 1,192(25.2%) were from Vietnam.
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- FYI There are many Korean-Chinese and Chinese people in Korea and there are people who have become naturalized Koreans and are marrying Chinese people.
- There are many Vietnamese women who have married Korean men with a large age difference and some of them divorced after naturalization using a marriage visa and remarried Vietnamese men.
"The toxic work culture and intense social hierarchy" I truly felt this line, even if you want to learn further at work, but they set boundaries to young people who strives harder and become better, that's why I'm thinking of searching another opportunities to become better and leave all the bs behind
The working environment is so toxic there in Korea, and you guys expect people to have kids on top of that when everything is expensive as hell, not to mention everyone is focused on status and judgemental that you forget who you are in the first place.
Koreans have suffered far worse in their history and had lots of kids. Under Japanese occupation they still had lots of kids.
It’s Complicated 😮
Than😂 why u spent a lot in plastic surgery
@@michaelashby9654You are right. Foreigners should massively occupy South Korea and birth rate shall go up.
@@michaelashby9654nationalism is a hell of a driver. It is different from the current Joseon Hell that leads to hopelesness.
I wonder what wildlife lives in the rural areas of Korea. Maybe with this trend of people moving to the cities the wildlife will be able to rebound.
we all thing avout economy ,social but what about environment. maybe this is the best for earth
That is happening in Japan with more bears and wild boars being spotted as the countryside depopulates.
Rural South Korea is so beautiful. I would find it irresistible 🌲🌳🌲
Their rural areas so beautiful...
Very interesting report. Here in Taiwan, the pull toward Taipei isn't so strong, in part because of the science parks in Hsinchu, Taichung, and Tainan.
是这样的，因为台湾哪哪都穷啊。出个门还都自己为过得不错XD
the birth rate in Taipei is 0.95.
Shanghai 0.6
HK 0.97
Singapore 0.98
Seoul 0.6
Tokyo 1.03
As an American who grew up in a small town working on farms went to college for farming and then I got into agricultural technology startups and for better opportunities I had to live in a pretty big city for 5 or 6 years and it was good in some ways but I pretty much hated it once I sold my company I moved back to where my friends had a farm in rural northern New York and I have found just as much opportunity here with very low cost of living in housing and no young people because they all move to the city There are huge opportunities to take over businesses because all the family members of the businesses left to go to the city for more opportunity. Most are really struggling in the city because it's extremely expensive housing wise and just all cost of living in the job market is extremely competitive a percentage will compete and do extremely well many others will not get ahead.
I always said I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
Why can’t Korean companies allow for work-from-home? Are the bosses afraid of losing power? That might help repopulate the countryside!
My guess is that it would be impossible culturewise for now
It's a corporate cultural problem that looks down on remote working. Companies want their employees to show up in the offices. It's too bad, because Korea can leverage its excellent internet infrastructure with cloud working, to fix the overconcentration in Seoul due to employment opportunities. If they simply allowed their workers to live anywhere in the country while still being employed online with companies in Seoul, it would instantaneously fix the problem of Seoul sucking the life out of the rest of the country.
I know are there no computers or internet. I hoped with Covid people would get family time and end this nonsense.
You can't even leave the work place before your boss leaves, don't think they'd trust people working fully remote
No, most popular companies offer remote work systems.Especially, IT companies. However, it can be difficult for manufacturing companies, but it depends on the job.
In Seoul or Busan (and other cities) there are apartments that cost 20 million dollars(corrected in comments), and there are people living in floors below street level in the -1 with only one window. Fix this. Everyone needs a home, when basic needs and wealth distribution is fair, people will have babies.
In rural areas you can buy a house for just 100 $
@@user-fv3vq4qq7m don't lump me with your kind
@@baha3alshamari152 that's not the point being discussed in this video
@user-fv3vq4qq7m They don't allow immigrants, and bc of trade restrictions, they're struggling with poverty
Are you a communist or something? People Should slave away for mortgages for 50 years, without having kids or personal time!
If this video is made about Singapore, it would be 'Is Singapore To Blame for Singapore's Population Crisis?".
Native Malay have bigger brith rate than Descendants of immigrants such as Chinese and Indians
No one bothers about sg really.. 😂 stop making urself relevant.. u immigrants.. 😅
Singapore doesn't actually have a population crisis like Korea/Japan, since the country here is the only one that is very open to immigration. All the potential population decline in Singapore is offset by the population increase from all the immigrants coming in.
Meanwhile Korea/Japan can't solve this problem the same way due to their homogeneity in society. It's also harder when you need learn their native language whereas in Singapore everyone just needs know English
The country isn’t called “Seoul”.
@@danielbenner7583 It's is a joke. Since Singapore is not just a city but also its own country. Just like Monaco.
It feels and sounds so depressing knowing that the moment you were born, you were already destined for a specific place.
This is the reason why suicide is high in SK especially Gen Z.
Nah, this is a worldwide issue. Living is so expensive, no one wants to make children.
They're a waste of money.
The good thing about some people not having kids is that this kind of negative attitude gets erased from the gene pool. Love how nature works.
Here is a fun fact for you. Almost all countries except for underdeveloped nations like Africa and India have below replacement level birth rates.
That means the population will shrink drastically by 2100. When the population shrinks, the economy shrinks.
Anyone with basic common sense knows a shrinking economy is bad news. Lesser jobs, lower salaries, less services, higher taxes, you name it.
I don't know about you but I would not want to be part of that world. I am sure glad I won't be around for that mess.
That is not even considering the climate catastrophe that will hit hard by 2050.
So, hey good luck to your children and your grandchildren. I am sure they will be super happy to inherit all that mess.
at least someone who thinks like you and might mistreat kids has the choice to not have them lmao
You are a waste of money.
@@truongtran-yr8ew and you are not? What have you done in your life that is so important for humanity?
Meanwhile me as an african i am worried about my continents explosion in population when there is barely any development.
Y’all’s birth rate is declining too. Steel your culture… or or western progressivism will take your community as well.
Poverty Leads to Overpopulation and Economic Prosper brings Infertility………Countries needs to find balance like some of European countries have found like Swiss, Norway, Netherlands…
@@KhattaMeethaOficial Thats true.
@@KhattaMeethaOficial Khatta, your comment disparaging the worth of humans is bad.
@@earlysda It’s Just Facts Not my Judgement, Historically this is what been Happening …
That fact that Busan, the 2nd largest city, is at risk of collapse due to depopulation is truly terrifying. Government better figure out a way to decentralize the job market, top universities, earning opportunity from Seoul and QUICKLY.
The rural era is absolutely beautiful. It's heartbreaking
This is where the government policy can promote population in the rural area by building hospitals, affordable housing, government offices etc and incentives for private sectors to relocate their head offices to these smaller cities. Without job opportunities, accessible facilities and infrastructure to enable easy transportation around the town this issue will continue to snowball.
I remember being on a bus from the countryside to Seoul, and I saw a lot of empty and abandoned buildings / villages on the way. So I guess it is a really big problem there.
Why all the guys have the same hairstyle
The emphasis is on belonging to a crowd, not standing out.
Koreans are largely "sheep". Do one and then do All.
@@muhammadfakhrurrozi9613 they are all sheep. That's why
Because they look good on them duh
Beauty standard in korea has led to people having same hairstyle, jawline and etc.
Open Yonsei, Korea University in Busan. Put more fund over there than Seoul.
The whole prestigious university is another scam. Half of graduates from everywhere will be unemployed
They make living in korea so cool in k shows then a vid like this comes and you thank God for knowing that country only through samsung and k dramas and not through being born and live there
다큐멘터리 보세요.사회 문제 다룬 드라마도 많아요. 멋지게 만드는건 문제가 안되고 드라마를 진짜라고 믿으니까 그런거지
Every country is like this lol.. pros and cons. Some people succeed and some don't. That's just life kid.
@@user-yb9di6on5sTrue. Drama is for entertainment. Why make connection to reality? Also there are many dramas that showcases social issues.
Most of the dramas I've watched tackle bad issues. Actually the recent dramas portray them.
Exactly they portray it very well. And at least Top from Big Bang was HONEST about saying he didn't like south korea. And for many a reason as to what he was dealing with and seeing going on. The rest deed us the lie.
This is extremely sad. They should be acting with much more urgency.
Filipinos thought Seoul as a perfect city. Most of the Filipinos never thought that the most expensive part Gangnam got flooded as well 😂😂😂
Its more perfect than any Filipino city
@@BarryBigbols Not at all sorry to disappoint you haha
😓😓😓😓
@@BarryBigbolslol i never get the idea in living in a space crammed with people and buildings
It could be perfect city Or worst in the other hands. I love Seoul, but I gotta admit that it’s not easy to survive financially to live there
urban areas by nature are fertility depressors. the stress, rush and price factors severely impede population growth. not to mention there is something about human sub conscious on reducing mouths when they are squashed in a very small area with a lot of people. rural areas are the fountain where population flows out.
They need to emphasize learning of trades. This university obsession is a mindset that is passé.
i use to watch 2 days and 1 night (a korean variety show) where they would travel around the countryside, and in a few episodes they hang out with elderly people and mention the population decline
22:43 Of course money will work. Give every couple a free apartment in Gangnam if they have 2 babies. I guarantee you will see birth rate jump back to normal level. $1400 helps nothing for their financial burden. It is just a token gesture which can't even cover 2 months of private tuition fee.
This bonus helps the rich get richer because they have more money to spend on holidays when they will have baby anyway regardless of any bonus.
👍
Who's going to foot in the bills tho? The govt would go bankrupt just simply handing out free condos. Wealth redistribution through fair pay and denormalization of competitive society are the keys.
Someone will have to pay for those apartments
@@wamnicho Of course. Someone has been paying for the $1400 for each baby as well. It's like poor working class, who won't be benefitted from the scheme, paying a nice holiday trip for the upper class. I am not saying giving out free apartments is practical, just want to emphasis there is no solution but don't say money won't work.
@@mariam-bk510 if money worked, we would have already seen the results
As an outsider looking at Seoul I was slightly disappointed with the rapid destruction of old neighbourhoods and the rapid growth of high-rises, stripping away a lot of the uniqueness and visual appeal of the city but I understand the need to house all the new people and the people to come. I hope they are able to solve the population issues but other countries with more flexible mindsets have not managed to do so.
China is successfully moving people away from coastal cities to the interior.
Exactly. The western mindset is clearly taking over. Imagine destroying cultural and heritage buildings over modern shining its sacrilege
Seems like the European/North American model is working just fine over there in South Korea
I don't know what European model you have in mind, but between my Western Europe country and Korea, we are worlds apart when it comes to parenting and birth rates.
Korea is ultra liberal as a society, they pay the price of not having a stronger planification.
It’s not the Western model that’s the problem, China’s using a very different economic model and they’re also suffering from a major fertility crisis. People just don’t want to have kids nowadays or if they want it’s only one kid, government policy is unlikely to change that.
its not western model.ppl just want better life instead of many kids
very thorough doco on this topic, heaps well reported. i wonder what the burden on the healthcare system will look like in the next coming decades- quality and quantity of healthcare staff, accessibility, meeting demands etc. also funny how none of the experts interviewed were women, says something in itself about the norms and opportunities available
The era has already changed, if the government doesn’t create a good policy to boost birth then we can expect what kind of future will be. I think a sense of good community in rural areas must be started in the first place. More subsidy and government support for farming/ manufacturing, etc. The education cannot be concentrated in Seoul Univ only. This kind of stereotyping of good school is actually killing the young generation’s sense of self safisfaction towards life. Life itself is already challenging, don’t burden them even more
Corporate greed has created alll of this
I did work in South Korea, and all the young people live in Seoul, not much in other states. That is why I keep seeing older people when I visit Busan. 2019
Why is it so difficult to control housing prices?
It’s hard to explain but it will be not easy any time soon because government involved.
Over regulation and taxation of land and homes.
There was an explosion of wealth in the 60s and 70s that made these rural areas possible in the first place. As money gets harder to make and things become more expensive, people have to crowd around rich people(which is what cities are) and service them. Before that these rural areas were incredibly poor and backwards. So while this is a shock to modern people, this is really just a return to normal. The birthrate is affected because people are conditioned to expect a certain lifestyle, not because raising or educating a child is expensive. Mental health, despair etc all stem from this.
This is an interesting take. Do you have a book or paper you could point to that I could read more about it?
South Korea needs to change.
Their too stupidly stubborn to change. They are their own worst enemy just undoing themselves at this point. And the press just stays reporting. The press are not fundi g nothing. There's no International rallying or movement. Of any kind. And there they stay stubborn.
Company incentives to move to rural areas? No one want to live in those lovely beach towns? 😲
Allowing older Seoul workers to work remotely, may help spread population outside of Seoul - allowing young families to buy a home.
Developed countries & some developing countries become developed are facing the aging population & low birthrate terms of uncertain economy,highghiving cost,low payment salaries even I malaysian also same problem as the rest of other asian countries but thanks credit to politican & leaders for caused with heavy respondbilities
Seoul is worse when it comes to population density than Tokyo, because its size it’s much smaller but with more people, and you feel it. Everything is so cramped, the city is so busy, so much traffic. I think the overpopulation in the capital will become even worse. I don’t see it getting better to be honest.
We in third world country are admiring first world countries but they themselves have their own problem
More money more problems
This is when economic growth is EXCLUSIVE.
I don't see the reason to be alarmed about low fertility rates anywhere in this world. South Koreans in particular are very highly educated and they know it's a bad idea to bring children if they know that they cannot provide a stable household. The highly competitive job market, expensive housing market, and generally high cost of living means that there is general high demand for low supply. What is needed is a correction which is already happening. Once there are fewer home buyers, the housing prices will fall as housing stock goes up. Once there are less workers, employers will have to be less picky on who to hire and offer higher compensation packages. Once demand for goods fall because of lower population, prices will have to fall as well.
And when prices fall, salaries and wages fall, business downsize and there’s less demand for new employees and then we are back to square one 😂
@@wamnichoat least earth can breath.
@@alfi-il7be you think Africans will stop breeding because Koreans have stopped “to help earth breath” they will come and take over those lands, that’s how the law of nature works
None of that replaces human beings. Policies need to be deliberately designed to encourage FAMILY LIFE
and to make life in rural areas attractive.
discrimination is not only a problem for Koreans, but there are also many criminal acts committed by foreign workers. Numerous illegal immigrants, driving unregistered and uninsured vehicles(90% of them drive unregistered vehicle), and they dealing with drugs.
Humanity should take careful note of South Korea's dire demographic predicament. This is the natural by-product of hyper-capitalism, hyper-competitiveness, hyper-consumerism, and hyper-individualism. Marriage rates plummet. Fertility and birth rates plummet. Soon, the nation, people, and society will disintegrate and fall apart.
I wish there was an interview with a younger person living in the rural area. Although they touched on it, it would have been nice to hear from an actual person about their experience and why they are still living in the country side
Two extremes. From the pressures of We to the freedom of Me. From We to Me culture. Where’s the balance? The solution can’t swing from one extreme to the other, you end up with the same problem.
Should be easy to solve, just force the universities, big companies to relocate from Seoul to the surrounding cities.
Interestingly Japan’s birth rates are higher and home prices are lower, I wonder is there a correlation.
Japan is pretty low too
Japan's birth rate is low as well comparable to SK.
This explains Japan's lower house costs (ua-cam.com/video/geex7KY3S7c/v-deo.html , ua-cam.com/video/d6ATBK3A_BY/v-deo.html ) TLDR it's a combination of very good zoning laws along with depopulation. The Vienna model is increasingly becoming popular as well in context of implementing affordable housing policies.
@@aerithofmyoreVienna model not working either since Austria has extremely low birth rates too, in fact below the already very low European average
The severe misogyny against women
Before being an expat in Korea consider carefully whether you can tolerate their culture & social norms
The Silicone Valley in California exists thanks to Stanford University. Boston continues to be admired and respected thanks to the best and brightest of Harvard. The brains of a country cannot be at a single location. I guess the CEOs of Samsung and Kia were too busy making money. Seoul may look alive and strong and attractive to others. It reminds me of Charlie Chaplin movies about man and machine. I don’t envy the young and feel sorry for the middle aged. As for the over 65 they are fortunate because Korea has beautiful Nature. Be at home with nature-that’s the secret of Happiness for any human.
Decentralize Everything!!! Money, Manufacturing, Education, Construction and Infrastructure....... Stop building up and start building out....
Is the same in Vietnam everyone is trying to come to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh city. But at least, we have 2 cities to divide. Overcrowded cities, properties skyrocketting, air pollution and traffic jams are widespread
Fortunately in Singapore we a a city state and it's not too far to get around the whole Singapore. We won't have this issue but we also have the issue of low birth rate.
The need to encourage farming to young people, so rural areasget some boost. What are they going to eat in the future?
There is no money in farming. The work is back-breaking.
This is a great example of how network affects can be extremely powerful in lead to a almost non-stoppable feedback loop...
All 1st world countries face the same problem .....why because of governments wants GDP so benefitting them, does this proceeding benefits peoples.
70% of voters are over 40 years old As a 70 year old politician You will provide policies that benefit older people.Such as increasing taxes for young people to give as pension money and improving health for older people.
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Can you elaborate other than taxing, what governments can do to better improve the wellbeing of peoples….
alan, your statement is observably wrong.
@@earlysda What is your support ?
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Please specify ?
At least, despite the balance tipping heavily towards Seoul, the rest of South Korea is still first world by international standards. Meanwhile in the Philippines, Manila is very similar to Seoul being the center of everything, but the rest of the country sadly is still very much third world despite the Philippines having a head start in terms of development.
I wonder why the world is so concerned over Korea and Japan's birthrates, I don't see this mass hysteria over Italy's birthrate which is even lowe than Japan, villages are becoming ghost towns and Italy is not as pro immigration as other european countries, Meloni is trying to make it harder for immigrants to go there, so Italy has the same problem, Spain and Finland also have crazy low birthrates and not enough immigration, but nobody seems to care, it makes me wonder why is everyone so obsessed over East Asian demographics 👀
Hint: US military bases and America’s best friends N. Korea, China and Russia are all right there. Especially if both populations incredibly shrink and can’t even protect themselves, it’s more of a burden to protect them. Nobody is concerned about Italy because it’s surrounded by Allies. I feel like this is way more geopolitical reasoning than these documentaries point out. People will always have kids and live in those countries, they’ll just be more empty much like Australia and Canada and Mongolia etc. That’s just my simple opinion though.
Yep there is a thing about abandoned Japanese homes. Asia took declining fertility to heart. Because of how their areas were affected by occupation and the world war and more recent wars. Most the earth lives in Asia. While the west was worried about the population explosion it turned into a lie. There is a population implosion. Japan and Korea really don’t immigrants into the country. We see economies stall with this. War is often an option when this happens. Basically you don’t want 5 for the army like Russia or only 1 child like China. Korea wanted 0-2 but did not make a law about it. They did convince people to get sterilized for the good of the country. Groups of neighbors would do it together. Like Americans giving blood after 9/11. So many girl babies aborted in Korea that for a time it was illegal to tell gender and people had illegal ultrasounds. If most people decided to have 6 it would be a problem. Less than 2 for a prolonged period is also a problem. World fertility is at 2.4 with 2.1 being replacement. The earth isn’t replacing people.
Because unlike Italy (where they don't make really anything hi tech in the modern world)...Japan and Korea are key pillars in the modern world.
Italy can literally disappear tomorrow and no one in the US would even give much care. But you take away Korea and Samsung, LG, etc....are all gone
Maybe because if they collapse, Japan and South Korea will be invaded by North Korea and China, and that will lead to a global conflict
@@MC-tm2uy Greece and Italy are the cradle of western civilization. The U.S. would care.
The government needs to make laws to end this favoritism of Seoul university’s. Like making company’s hire 10% people from other parts as well or something like that. There must be something to do. The government needs to take big action in some kind of way
As a rural southern American i get it no jobss for miles no activities to keep you happy for milesssss education sysstem is so bad and if you're a certain race then your schools won't be funded here it's so stressful and depressing the grocery stores arent diverse at all
All East Asian nations move towards similar situation. Whatever you say, Korean families won't be able to have 5-7 kids like they had in 50-70s, 3-5 kids like they had in 80-90s. The population once has been drastically overblown, now slowly coming to the average of morden highly developed nations.
I think there should be a price ceiling for real estate prices, they should not be allowed to overprofit
There is an easy fix to not let real estate prices grow, don't limit the housing supply. It is as simple as that.
If you allow to build houses anywhere and everywhere, demand and supply will match and there won't be any need for controlling housing prices.
This is the case everywhere, any country on earth can fix their soaring real estate prices by allowing more construction of houses and increasing housing supply. Prices rise because of high demand and low availability.
@@Lalit-yw2tb
Yes I agree with you. It’s all about the supply.
@@Lalit-yw2tb why would they built a lot of houses, when the population is already declining.. like whose buying that.. it's more likely that would be empty like there's a lot of empty real estate in china
Same in japan😢😢😢
It looks like the same problem is one that no government want to address. Cost of living is too high. Everyone is very competitive -- limiting free time to mingle and marry. A single wage cannot support a family, so you need both incomes to support their living, thus delaying or no child.
Money isn't the root cause. The root cause is teaching children that their ancestors were pond scum millions of years ago, and that humans are ruining the planet now.
Implement laws in favor of stay home women to earn a salary to take care about the house and a kid.
Taking care about a home and a baby is phisical and mental labour . It is a job.
Is this a utopia?
You'll see how things will change. Ah.
I think the people of South Korea just have to adjust to the declining population.
Production will have to go down.
Consumption will also go down.
The whole economy will size down proportionally.
The lack of economic growth is only a problem if you expect infinite growth in a finite world.
The government has to get involved more heavily from now.
Because there are a limited number of youths born now, the government has to plan ahead for the youth's future.
Then when the youths grow up, they will receive government job placements and replace the old population proportionally.
A lot of the older generation will die childless, leaving behind assets for the nieces and nephews and distant relatives and friends.
This will just help the younger generation have an increase in per-capita wealth.
That'd be a hypothesis of development, but such rapid decline in particular can strain resources which could worsen demographics more in a cycle, it's a wrong assumption that because a population declines you'll have more resources shared among fewer as it's largely the people themself that create the resources , though technology does intervene a bit, the legitimate question isn't if you can have economic growth, it'd be about whether you can retain the services which the society provides within agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare and so on
Just money is NOT enough to have a family.
You need TIME to spend with your partner and children.
humans are instictively wanted to have a family and reproduce if they're living a good and happy life. this should not be a question when the government of that country is obviously the main contributing factor to the population crisis issue. population crisis is the most direct result of poor quality society and governance as a whole. the country itself could be doing better or more wealthy than some other countries but this doesn't mean that the people are living a better quality life than others so the country itself doing well is not the best measurement to evaluate their actual performance from a citizen's standpoint.
I want to be a Korean too.😮❤
I was also surprised to see so many elderly people collecting recyclables or selling homewares, food, vegetables etc. It's like one has to work in a corporation to retire properly, and everyone else has to fend for themselves till they die?
I studied abroad in Seoul. I loved it! I’m pretty sure if I stayed, I would’ve never gotten married and have children. There’s just so much to do and see!
I hope South Korea does not depend on migrant workers mainly because all countries birth rates are dropping quickly. Soon there won’t be any migrants. Countries with quickly declining populations will be the ones sending the workers since there won’t be any jobs for their youth.
The reason why giving money doesn’t increase birth rates is because people have children when life is hard, not when life is enjoyable. I know many people who make great money, they don’t want children because they view children as a burden. It’s sad but that’s how many people think! There is no other time in history where access to food, clean water, suitable shelter and clothing is at an all time high. Now the standard for children is a big enough house (each child must have their own bedroom), extra tutoring (public education is free) and vacations. With those standards, most people will never be able to afford kids.
People have children when life is STABLE. People had lots of children years ago, because life was stable and predictable. There were jobs for life, usually a house to live in and so were the people around them. Stability is a necessary element that enables people to have children. Today there isn't any stability. Jobs can be lost on a whim, and with it your house and money to support your family. Those stabilities have disappeared. If you ask smart young couples why they're not having children, the answers usually come down to stability issues. Do we have a house? Children are a very long term commitment - will we be able to support our children until they can support themselves? Will we be able to give our children good enough opportunities? Will we be able to spend enough time with them anyway, if we had them? Jobs and income is no longer stable. Houses require a massive investment that is easily lost if even one partner's job is lost. Years ago households only required one income and that income was stable - usually a job for life. And a wife's income was extra, luxury money. Now both husbands AND wife's incomes are required just to SURVIVE. That's not stable, particularly in today's job market where companies can just sack people on a whim, and the sacking of either partner is disaster.
These stabilities that people enjoyed, meaning that they could be sure of being able to support children over at least 2 decades has been almost totally eroded. So now the only people who tend to have children are the very rich, who can afford them, and the very poor, who don't have the education to realise the problems.
THIS is why this is a problem in every developed country. All developed countries have THIS problem, where people struggle just to survive, can't be sure they'll still have a job or a house next week, and if they ARE sure, they're working 60 hour weeks to maintain it, so they wouldn't get to see their children often anyway. What intelligent people would have children under these circumstances? We need to replace that stability: make sure housing is not only affordable but sustainable to pay off over a long term. And for that we need STABLE jobs where companies aren't hiring and firing on a whim. We also need work-life balance so that people can actually breath enough to have the energy to have children, and the time to have children and spend time with them without having to work 60 hour weeks just to survive.
All this has happened because of capitalism. The filthy rich have been squeezing more and more out of the rest of the world over the last 3 or 4 decades. That squeeze created the housing problems, the low rates of pay (requiring two incomes to buy less than half of what one income once bought), longer working hours that also contain exhausting competition to maintain, and then both parents have to come home and maintain their house too, (which used to be a full time job for one person, so there was more time to spend at night and weekends with children). Capitalism isn't all bad, but it did create this - a dog-eat-dog world where people have to work so hard to survive in an unstable world that having children is waaaaay down the list of things they can focus on. A problem that is only getting worse with each year. Fix THIS problem and the birthrate problem all goes away on it's own with no extra effort.
If birth control existed 300 years ago, they would’ve taken advantage of it like us now. People have been trying to controlling pregnancy or sex w/o pregnancy for centuries with herbs, pull out and etc and basically just hoped it worked. And the world cant depend on exponential growth forever, we’re just going back to the population numbers before the baby boomers.
This is everywhere in US, Canada, China, Japan, Europ.
Yes but not at the rate as in Asia.. Stop downplaying the issues. Scandinavian parental social policies does slow down low birth rates.
@@Callsign-Blade_RunnerSG The problem is not about birth rate. The problem is internal population migration that people move to city where the jobs are located.
I wonder why past policymakers chose Seoul as the metropolitan hub when it is definitely near the demilitarized zone.
no more kdrama or kpop in 100 years 😭
It's not even an exaggeration. On it's current trajectory there will be about 4 South Koreans left for every 100 alive today in that time frame. That's about 2 million left from 52 million
no more subway sponsorships 📉😭
There's AI KPOP stars now that don't age - KPOP is here to stay forever.
@@extremepsyche3135wellcome to v-tuber.
I will be dead way before then unless I reincarnate.
Me watching in disbelief from the US where we don't have to worry about population decline because we embrace immigration and diversity.
Waste and resource ownership imbalance is the main problem in the world right now. Corruption, greed, deception, etc are causing all this.
One person is WAY TOO RICH to set the lives of his family for generations, while 1000 others can barely survive. I'm not saying such people should give all their money to everyone else, but laws and rules should not allow such people exist (or reach that super-rich status), and allow better distribution of opportunity.
If this keeps up, we're back to monarchy, and have kings and queens again.
So you mean you want a socialist society, by having such rules. Got it.
@@TheMrleeyang yeah i probably want a hybrid capitalist-socialist society. might not work. evidently capitalism alone doesn't work. socialism alone doesn't work. actually, it seems nothing works (permanently) as long as humans have an insatiable greed.
@@TheMrleeyang yeah, maybe i want a hybrid capitalist-socialist society. might not work either. evidently we screw up anything eventually.
@@aaronalquiza9680 Fixed pie fallacy.
The reasons were not similar in any way, but i grew up in Metro Detroit. Let me tell you, after the 60s, Detroit is not somewhere anyone wants to live. City services are basically non-existent. Property taxes are massively high. Crime is ridiculous. The population is v small and spread out with large spaces of abandoned and destroyed areas. It's sad to see it in Detroit. Seeing it in an entire country will be devastating. Living here for the 40 years of my life, i can honestly say, i can't see a rejuvenation for Detroit. They are attempting a revitalization, but if S.Korea gets to Detroit's level blight... not good.