7 in 10 Say Children Are Necessary... Reality Proved Different

These days, everyone has different thoughts on whether they should have a child, and if so, how many would be ideal.

Was there a big gap between the number of children considered ideal and the reality?

Seven out of 10 adults in South Korea answered that children are necessary in life, and the ideal number of children they thought of averaged 1.76.

However, the number of children they actually gave birth to or expect to give birth to in the future stopped at an average of 1.07.

As for the reason why they think children are necessary, the response "the happiness and meaning of a family" was the most common.

The biggest reason why people want children but fail to lead to actual childbirth was, after all, due to economic burdens.

The burden of child-rearing and education costs was cited as the biggest obstacle to childbirth, followed by responses that it is difficult to balance work and childcare, as well as housing costs and housing environment issues.

In particular, it was found that the influence of factors such as policy support, childcare burdens, and career interruptions, as well as economic burdens, grows larger as it goes from the second child to the third child or more.

Experts analyzed that while economic factors fundamentally have a big impact when deciding to give birth, as the number of children increases, multiple factors such as policy support, rearing and care burdens, and career issues act in a complex manner.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.