Gangdong-gu 2022 Total Fertility Rate 0.72... Seoul City's Total Fertility Rate Tops for 2 Consecutive Years

Leading the creation of a birth and childcare-friendly environment with increased influx of 3040 generation, establishment of care infrastructure, and development of customized services

According to the finalized announcement by Statistics Korea on the 30th of last month, Gangdong-gu (Mayor Lee Su-hee) achieved the highest total fertility rate for two consecutive years, recording 0.72 in 2022, significantly surpassing the Seoul average of 0.59.

The reason Gangdong-gu maintains the top spot in total fertility rate is due to improved residential conditions centered around newly built apartments in Godeok, Gangil, and Sangil-dong, which have led to a significant increase in the influx of residents in their 30s and 40s. Additionally, the district’s development of specialized policies to encourage childbirth and the expansion of various customized services for child-rearing have played a major role in creating a favorable environment for raising children.

To boost the birth rate, the district established a specialized support system for multi-child families and provided mobile services to families with infants, thereby reducing the economic burden on childbirth and child-rearing households. Recognized for leading the creation of a childbirth and child-rearing friendly environment involving the local community and businesses, Gangdong-gu received a commendation from the Minister of Health and Welfare as an outstanding institution supporting pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing at the ‘12th Population Day’ event on July 11.

This year, with the goal of “Gangdong, a great place to raise children by working and caring together,” the district is investing a total of 136.8 billion KRW in 62 projects across three sectors. These include expanding public childcare centers, increasing after-school care and other child care services, and building care infrastructure such as additional ‘Seoul-style Kids Cafes’ and ‘Short-term Care Centers for Infants and Toddlers,’ focusing all efforts on overcoming low birth rates.

Among these initiatives, the booklet ‘Mom’s Comfortable World,’ which organizes information from marriage to pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, and childcare at a glance, has received positive feedback as a parenting guide. Meanwhile, the ‘Gangdong I-mom Taxi’ project, which supports families with infants who carry many items when going out by providing premium taxi vouchers worth 100,000 KRW, has been expanded and is now operated as a Seoul city project.

Furthermore, starting in September, the district plans to intensify efforts to make Gangdong a great place to have and raise children by collaborating with the ‘Mom and Dad Happiness Project’ officially launched by Seoul city.

Lee Su-hee, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, stated, “The beginning of our district’s childbirth policy is to consider projects from the perspective of parents raising children.” She added, “We will continue to prioritize urgently solving the low birth rate issue, lead the development of customized policies to increase births, and work to change negative perceptions about marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting.”

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