Colloquium in Apr. 2023
Bongoh Kye (Professor, Department of Sociology at Kookmin University, South Korea)
In the midst of hyper-low fertility rate in South Korea, this study aims to empirically analyze the association between household income and fertility and explore its implications. Using the data from Family and Fertility Survey conducted by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the study examines how marital fertility and fertility intentions have changed across household income groups in South Korea since 2000. Especially, the study uses a duration-based approach to minimize the tempo effects caused by delayed marriage.
The findings are summarized as follows. First, marital fertility has decreased in all household income groups since 2015, and this decline has been pronounced in the highest and lowest quartile groups. Second, fertility intentions of the highest quartile group were higher than those of the other groups until three or four years after the marriage, but this gap has diminished since the mid 2010s. Finally, fertility intentions among the married dramatically increased in the year of 2021.
The study discusses the implications of these findings in the understanding of extremely low fertility rate in South Korea.
