Average S. Korean woman: Employed at 24, married at 30, first child sixteen months later

Posted on : 2017-02-19 08:02 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Data show a shortening overall period of fertility, and a longer wait between first and second births

Employed at 24, married at 30, first child sixteen months later, second child after some debate and a two-year, four-month wait, no pregnancies after around age 42.
This is the average life trajectory for a married South Korean woman as determined by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA).

Average ages at milesones throughout South Korean women‘s lives. Data: Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs
Average ages at milesones throughout South Korean women‘s lives. Data: Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs

On Feb. 15, KIHASA researcher Oh Young-hee published a report titled “A Study of the South Korea’s Changing Birth History Using Fertility Survey Date (1974-2012).” Its findings showed the average married South Korean woman as having entered university at the age of 18 and spent five years there until the age of 22 before spending the next year focusing on employment. After finding employment with some difficulty by the age of 24, she married at 30 - by choice rather than necessity. She gave birth to her first child at 31.4, sixteenth months after marrying. Women who wished to have a second child waited around two years before giving birth at 34.2. By the age of 41.9 years, the average woman ends the pregnancy and childbirth cycle, through sterilization procedures or otherwise. In the process, married women were found to experience an average of 0.57 miscarriages or pregnancy terminations.

Oh’s calculation of the average life of a married South Korean woman was based on KIHASA birth history survey data from 2012 and Statistics Korea economic activity census data from 2015.

According to the report, the trend toward later marriages and low birth rates has intensified amid an increase in education levels and economic activity among women over the past 30 or so years. Women’s age at their first marriage rose from 20.4 in 1976 all the way to 25.5 in 2012 and 30 in 2015. Since tumbling from 3.6 in 1974 to 2.1 in 1984, the total fertility rate continued to slide, reaching 1.75 in 1993 and 1.17 in 2002. It subsequently rebounded slightly to 1.22 in 2008 and remained at 1.239 as of 2015.

Another noteworthy finding was the large gap between births after the second child. A comparison of 1998 and 2006 figures showed little difference in the periods from marriage to first childbirth, at 16.4 and 16.8 months respectively. But the period between first and second childbirths rose by five months from 29.1 in 1998 to 34.1 in 2006, while the period between second and third childbirth increased by 15.3 months from 33 in 1998 to 48.3 in 2006 - evidence suggesting that married women are spending a long time after their first childbirth weighing whether to have another child.

“The actual fertile period for South Korean women has decreased to just 11.9 years, from marriage at 30 until an end to pregnancies at 41.9, which is another factor causing the low birth rate,” said Oh.

Oh said the findings were “a good illustration of changes in values regarding marriage and the family.”

“Reversing the low birth rate trend requires stronger incentive measures to be devised, rather than current low birth rate measures such as tax deductions for marriage-related costs and priority status for bank loans,” she suggested.

By Lee Chang-gon, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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