Categories: World

North Korea fertility rate plummets to estimated 1.38, South Korean officials claim

close Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for December 30

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.

North Korean fertility rates are in free-fall and far below levels necessary to replace its aging population, South Korea’s central bank claims.

The Bank of Korea’s Economic Research Institute shared its data on Friday, claiming fertility rates in North Korea have dropped to as low as 1.38.

“The results show that North Korea’s total fertility rate was 1.91 in the 1990s, then dropped to 1.59 in the 2000s, and was at 1.38 in the 2010s,” the report claims. 

KIM JONG UN TELLS COMMITTEE NORTH KOREA MUST COOPERATE WITH ‘ANTI-IMPERIALIST’ COUNTRIES AGAINST US

School children arrive to pay their respects before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mansu Hill in Pyongyang. (KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images)

It continues, “The 1.38 fertility rate in the 2010s not only confirms the downward trend in the fertility rate previously estimated by the UN, but is also consistent with North Korean defectors’ testimonies that most women born in 1970s and 1980s are only giving birth to one child.”

The Economic Research Institute acknowledged imperfect methodology in calculating the data, being forced to utilize testimonies and limited data available from escaped North Korean citizens.

“The reasons for the decline in the total fertility rate include the increase in late marriage among women in urban areas and the decline in fertility due to women’s increased participation in market activity,” the BOK reports.

NORTH KOREAN ELITES ATTEND YEAR-END CEREMONY IN EXPENSIVE MERCEDES SEDANS, DESPITE LUXURY GOODS BAN

Pedestrians use umbrellas in the rain as they walk outside the Pyongyang Railway Station in Pyongyang. (KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images)

“A country’s birthrate tends to fall when income levels rise. But even though North Korea is a low-income country, its total fertility rate [remains unusually] very low,” the report continues.

Earlier this month, North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un became tearful during a speech praising the nation’s mothers.

“The credit for the brilliant today of our country goes to our mothers who are ordinary and simple and the strongest before any difficulties and have become the genuine models of always devoting themselves unhesitatingly to the road of patriotism as well as the roots for bringing up a large number of heroes in all parts of the country,” the dictator said, according to a transcription of the remarks printed in Korean Central News Agency.

Schoolchildren sit on a bench as they watch a television screen at Kaeson Station of the Pyongyang Metro in Pyongyang.  (KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“All mothers should fulfill their responsibility and duty assumed before society and families with confidence in and optimism about the prospects of our socialist construction and a changed ideal society to come in the near future,” Kim Jon Un said in the speech. “They have [a] heavy mission to bring up their children to be pillars of socialist and communist construction and masters of future society.”

North Korea — officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — operates under the state ideology of juche, a communist worldview founded on a cult of personality and enthusiastic nationalism.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com

Share

Recent Posts

A massive explosion at an Iranian port linked to missile fuel shipment kills 5, injures over 700

close Video Fox News Flash top headlines for April 26 Fox News Flash top headlines…

3 hours ago

Reporter’s Notebook: From John Paul II to Francis, covering two historic papacies

close Video Vatican, world leaders remember Pope Francis Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg…

5 hours ago

‘No excuse’: Bipartisan fury erupts over New Jersey’s REAL ID backlog

It's virtually illegal to make a left turn in many parts of New Jersey, and bipartisan…

8 hours ago

PHOTO GALLERY: Pope Francis’ Funeral

Image 1 of 14 next People gather as they wait to see the hearse transferring…

10 hours ago

Here’s what happened during Trump’s 14th week in office

President Donald Trump is closing in on the first 100 days of his administration this…

10 hours ago

Experts reveal Trump’s next move could be ‘nail in coffin’ for Biden-era regulations on nicotine

FIRST ON FOX: President Trump’s "nicotine freedom crusade" rolling back Biden-era policies related to nicotine…

10 hours ago