Data released by the Korea Educational Development Institute on the 22nd local time showed that due to the sluggish birth rate, nearly a quarter of primary schools in South Korea have fewer than 60 students, and about one-tenth of primary schools have less than 30 students. "The Korea Times" cited relevant data and reported that among the 6,175 primary schools in South Korea, 1,424 had less than 60 students last year, accounting for about 23%. This proportion has roughly doubled from 2003.

In 2003, 610 of South Korea's 5,463 primary schools had less than 60 students, accounting for about 11%.


△On January 3, 2024, a closed primary school in Seoul, South Korea.

Data show that the largest number of primary schools with less than 60 students last year was in South Jeolla Province, with 212 schools; followed by North Gyeongsang Province and North Jeolla Province, with 207 and 206 schools respectively.

Compared with 2003, the number of primary schools with less than 30 students has increased significantly. At that time, there were 141 such primary schools, accounting for about 2.6% of all primary schools; last year, there were 584 such primary schools, accounting for about 9.5%.

According to the assessment of South Korea's Ministry of Education, the impact of the low birth rate will gradually spread from primary schools to secondary schools. South Korea currently has 5.13 million primary and secondary school students. This number will drop to 4.84 million by 2026, and will further drop to 4.27 million in 2029.

Normally, the greater the school-age population in a society's total population, the greater the demand for education.

In recent years, late marriage and non-marriage have gradually increased in Korean society, and the number of newborns has continued to decrease. South Korea had 249,000 newborns in 2022, and the total fertility rate was 0.78, both setting the lowest record since relevant records were kept.

The total fertility rate is the average number of children per woman of childbearing age. To ensure that the population is stable at 50 million, South Korea needs a total fertility rate of 2.1.

Relevant experts called on the government to take more powerful measures to boost the fertility rate because "South Korea's low fertility rate problem has reached a very serious level."