The wedding halls of the past are now holding funerals to bid farewell to the last journey of their lives.
The kindergartens where children were playing and singing are now only a few old people sighing helplessly.
This is a demographic tragedy that South Korea is facing.
Will South Korea's tragedy be our future?
The population issue is not unique to South Korea, and the three East Asian countries, China, Japan, and South Korea are now difficult brothers and sisters in this regard.
Everyone says that in terms of declining birthrate,Japan ran the earliest, South Korea ran the farthest, and China ran the fastest.
South Korea has ranked first in the world in terms of total fertility for many years.
The fertility rate in 2022 is even lower than 0778。
Under normal circumstances, to maintain the current population size, the fertility rate must be maintained at 21 or so.
South Korea's fertility rate is almost one-third of that figure.
According to statistics released by South Korea**, only 2350,000 people, of which less than 1 were born in December70,000, the lowest month on record.
On the other hand, as early as 2020, South Korea crossed the "death crossroads", that is, the number of deaths is greater than the number of births, and entered a stage of negative population growth, and the rate of population decline is increasing.
In 2020, South Korea's total population decreased by 20,000;
In 2021, South Korea saw a decrease of 910,000 people;
In 2022, there will be a decrease of 120,000 people in South Korea.
We also crossed the "death crossroads" in 2022.
The horrors of life and death have cast a shadow over South Korea's future.
Many South Koreans also asked questions."If there are no descendants, then what's the point of such a development? Is it like a firework that ends in one generation?
There are also many Koreans who sigh sadly:It took only one generation for us to rapidly modernize and become a developed country, crossing the path of the Western countries for nearly 200 years, and naturally it will take a generation to bear the price of the West for 200 years.
In South Korea, declining fertility rates have begun to destroy some industries closely linked to marriage and childbearing.
Nationwide, wedding halls have been reduced by one-third from 2018 to 2023.
Many venues that originally hosted wedding businesses were forced to close down or renovate themselves into funeral parlors.
South Korean citizens said with emotion."He used to be a wedding guest here, and now he is a mourner here
The number of newlyweds in South Korea fell to 1.03 million in 2022, setting a new record low, indicating that the contraction of the marriage market has seriously affected the related service industry.
The collapse of wedding venues is just the tip of the iceberg of South Korea's declining fertility rate.
The declining number of newborns is also making it difficult for kindergartens and primary schools to avoid their fate.
Many kindergartens are on the verge of closure and can only be transformed into nursing homes as a whole.
As many as a quarter of primary schools lack new children, and some have no new students.
The most vivid and vivid part of the social apparatus is gone, replaced by the empty solitude of the chairs.
In the face of such a severe demographic crisis, South Korea** has tried to implement various policies to encourage childbearing, but with little success.
The crux of the problem is that young South Koreans generally face high parenting costs, unaffordable housing prices, and a high-pressure work environment that makes them unwilling and unable to start a family.
The double pressures of family and career knocked them out.
And once the fertility rate falls into a death spiral, it will eventually eat away at a country's future.
South Korean experts believe thatThe current low fertility rate is not the cause of the tragedies of Korean society, nor is it the selfishness of the younger generation of South Korea, but the result of a society that has been in a deformed structure for decades.
The problem of a low birth rate is not simply a problem of economic growth. Economic growth is only a means we are after, and what really matters is the well-being of the people.
Therefore, slowing economic growth should not be the only concern. Rather than pursuing economic growth rates, we should think about how to improve people's happiness.
Economic growth can be achieved in many ways, and it does not necessarily depend on fertility. We can achieve economic growth through productivity improvement, innovation, and other means.
In addition, fertility does not necessarily lead to happiness. The focus should be on how to improve the well-being of families who have children. We need to create an environment where young people who want to have children can have peace of mind.
The root cause of the problem of low birth rates is that there is too much emphasis on economic growth at the expense of people themselves.
South Korean experts also said in order toLet Korean society come to its senses, or don't let young people have children casually.
We are also in no position to ridicule South KoreaBecause we are also facing a serious problem of declining birthrate and aging.
The tragedy that has occurred in South Korea may also be repeated with us.