Natural Decline
I would like to open the matter of South Korea's low birth rate, starting from last year as the the country's fertility rate came to 0.81 which is lower than the previous year, 0.84.
The country was the only one (correct me if I'm wrong, didn't do enough research lol) which stayed below the rate of 1, as last year was marked as their fourth year of having that rate lower than 1.
The low fertility rate of South Korea first started on year 1970 and slowly dropped lower on the following years (based on what the statistics had compiled).
And last year's number of births per 1000 people per year reached 5.1, which is again, lower than rhe previous years.
Last year, 2021, The number of newborns in South Korea reached a low record of 260,500. And the number of deaths on the same year, has a high record of 317,800.
Which resulted in a decline of the country's population, deaths had surpassed the number of child births.
And to briefly mention abortion (a long-trending issue nowadays), the country's law for abortion was decriminalized as of January 1, 2019 after a 66-Year Ban, with of course conditions that is 'morally' acceptable for abortion—but still had unclear legal boundaries on how to handle the procedures. Because of the underlying grey area, illegal practices for abortion caused risk on women's health and a loss of LIFE.
If I add other factors of a decreased childbirth rates, it would be the economic impact.
If I remember correctly, I discovered this fertility issue of South Korea last year, and stumbled upon a social interview on why most of the citizen avoided marriage and pregnancy, which had majority of their reason—the cost of living.
And I couldn't agree more. As part of the younger generation (gen z), it isn't the issue of finding a partner for life, it's about the issue of maintaining the security and financial stability for the family we'll be making in this time around or even for the future.
It's everyone's problem but living properly nowadays is different.
I couldn't even cope up with the pandemic, surviving just by my parents hard-earned money makes me even feel more terrible.
I couldn't even properly take care of myself, how can I have a family? a child?
Being alive is so expensive, even in death would cost so much.
I couldn't commit to that. I didn't even included a plan to have a family, at least after I reached the age of 30. But beyond that age, I couldn't imagine myself having my own or even a life after that (yes, that's how short I saw my lifespan is, as cruel as it sounds).
Human are the cause of their own decline, naturally as it is. Like humans became the cause of the other species' decline.
Imagine having most of the younger generation's mentality similar to mine, how many do you think would risk to have their genes be inherited by the following generations?
How many do you think would survive in the future, clearly knowing how we made this place this way.
After a century or maybe two, how different would humans came to be?
Will we become one of the endangered species also?
Though I only know for the fact that we are starting to decline... naturally.