Gyeonggi-do Gathers 200 Residents to Tackle Low Birthrate Issue

Gyeonggi-do I Wonder Citizen Participation Group Recruitment Poster

Gyeonggi Province is establishing the 'Population 2.0 Committee' (tentative name) to create birth rate countermeasure policies that resonate with the public.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 15th that it will operate the Population 2.0 Committee and form a pool of 200 citizen participants, including ▲residents involved in childbirth, childcare, and caregiving ▲representatives of family-friendly certified companies ▲sociologists (demographers), childcare policy experts, and youth and employment specialists.

To this end, the province is openly recruiting the 'I Wonder' citizen participation group until the 30th of this month. 'I Wonder' refers to a citizen participation group composed of young people and mothers who desire to have more children.

The committee will concretize policy ideas to address low birth rates and continuously incorporate voices from the field in the decision-making process. Governor Kim Dong-yeon of Gyeonggi Province will personally preside over the regular monthly meetings.

Ryu In-gwon, Director of the Planning and Coordination Office, stated, "We hope that the voices of residents involved in marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, childcare, and elementary school care will serve as a compass for low birth rate policies and help unravel the complex issues surrounding low birth rates."

Meanwhile, last year, the total fertility rate was 1.64 in the United States and 1.33 in Japan, while South Korea was the only OECD country with a rate below 1, at 0.78.

The number of marriages has dropped by 40% over the past decade, and the number of first-born children has decreased by 37%. According to the 2022 social survey, 63.9% of residents consider two children to be the ideal number, but the actual proportion of second-born children is only 35.7%.

Gyeonggi Province believes that while first-born births are influenced by the complex issue of marriage, second-born births could be a breakthrough in addressing low birth rates if policy barriers are removed. Therefore, the province is creating a committee involving residents to directly hear the causes of these barriers and discuss solutions together.

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