Shinan-gun, Total Fertility Rate Rises Vertically to 5th Nationwide

Effects of Expanding the Sunlight Pension and Childbirth Encouragement Support Policies

[Sinan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Jae-kyung] Last year, the total fertility rate in Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, soared to 5th place nationwide.

According to provisional data released by Statistics Korea, while the total fertility rate in South Korea recorded the lowest among OECD countries at 0.81, Sinan-gun's total fertility rate last year rose significantly to 1.50 from 1.34 in 2020.

Since 2019, the county has been operating a dedicated population policy organization and is promoting a local extinction response strategy through various population increase policies such as support for returning farmers and fishing villages.

Through an organizational restructuring in January, the county established a new Health Promotion Division at the Public Health Center and created a childbirth support department to implement integrated policies addressing population inflow and low birth rates.

With the nationwide first implementation of the renewable energy development profit-sharing system, the population moving into the relevant towns and townships increased by 129 compared to the previous year. In addition, the childbirth incentive payment was expanded from 2.4 million KRW to up to 9.7 million KRW depending on birth order, and residency period restrictions were abolished to broaden benefits, receiving great response for the childbirth encouragement support policy.

A Sinan-gun official stated, “We will create a stable living environment through basic income such as the Sunlight Pension and continuously discover and foster future food industry projects to create jobs,” adding, “We will also strive to create a child-rearing environment that is good for having and raising children through support for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.