Results and Implications of an In-depth Interview Survey to Understand the Low Fertility Rate in S. Korea : Focusing on the Seoul Metropolitan Area

Various factors and contexts of the low fertility rate in S. Korea, the lowest fertility rate among OECD member countries, have very historical, cultural, and structural characteristics. Therefore, it is important to understand and interpret the deep roots and broad fundamental backgrounds of the low fertility rate. Accordingly, this study has focused on understanding and interpreting the low fertility rate culturally, socially, and psychologically through in-depth interviews with 50 women and men in their 20s to 40s living and working in the Seoul metropolitan area. The common shared narratives and discourses are 1) the importance of individual freedom and personal life - preference for a free life, 2) support and high acceptance of cohabiting families and non-marital childbirth - the need to protect diversity in birth and family, 3) fatigue from the legacy of traditional family/weakening of marriage and childbirth norms/disappearance of social pressure for marriage and childbirth, 4) shortage of high-quality childcare services, high costs of (private) education and housing, 5) low trust and dissatisfaction with the government and uncertainty about the future, etc. We also attempted case analyses by various categories, such as the low-income/low-asset male group, dual-earner group, highly educated professional and high-income female group, and the 20s group’s attitudes toward marriage and childbirth. In addition to socio-economic factors, this paper, which is described and analyzed based on primary data from the in-depth interviews, aims to provide basic data to understand low fertility rate and to suggest policy reforms through qualitative interpretation of various cultural and socio-psychological factors.