Why South Korean women aren't having babies - BBC News

South Korea has spent billions to reverse its low birth rate, but some say it isn't listening to young women’s needs.

12 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Jean ChungImage caption, South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, which continues to plummet each yearBy Jean MackenzieSeoul correspondentOn a rainy Tuesday afternoon, Yejin is cooking lunch for her friends at her apartment, where she lives alone on the outskirts of Seoul, happily single.

While they eat, one of them pulls up a well-worn meme of a cartoon dinosaur on her phone. "Be careful," the dinosaur says. "Don't let yourself become extinct like us."

The women all laugh.

"It's funny, but it's dark, because we know we could be causing our own extinction," says Yejin, a 30-year-old television producer.

Neither she, nor any of her friends, are planning on having children. They are part of a growing community of women choosing the child-free life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68402139

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