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In Korean malls, a clear trend is emerging – more and more people are choosing to push pet strollers instead of baby strollers. According to South Korea's "Jingxiang News" reported on the 25th, in the first three quarters of this year, the sales of pet strollers in South Korea exceeded that of strollers for the first time.
According to Gmarket, a large integrated shopping website in South Korea, the share of pet strollers in sales has increased from 33% in 2021 to 57% this year, while the proportion of strollers has decreased from 67% in 2021 to 43% this year. This trend has been going on for some time.
The increase in the number of pet families in South Korea is also an important reason. According to the survey, the number of households increased from 3.64 million in 2012 to 6.02 million last year, and one in four Korean households has a pet. A person related to G Market said: "In recent years, the sales of pet products have continued to increase, on the contrary, the sales of children's products have decreased significantly. ”
Another important reason is the declining fertility rate in South Korea. According to statistics, South Korea has become the only country in the world with a total fertility rate below 1, and the average number of children born to each woman of childbearing age in South Korea this year is about 0.72, and it will drop further to 0.68 next year. This means that South Korea's total fertility rate has been at the bottom for three consecutive years, and it usually needs to reach at least 2.1 to maintain the replacement level.
Looking back at the mainland, it is also facing the demographic challenge of declining fertility.
- The higher the woman's income, the lower the marriage rate
Bertrand, Kamenica, and Pan (2015) published an article in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, a top journal of economics, providing direct evidence that "gender identity" affects women's marriage and labor force participation rates.
Using data from the U.S. Community Survey and the U.S. Census, they found that when women earn more than 50% of their total household income, that is, when women begin to earn more than men, the marriage rate declines dramatically.
-- The low marriage rate has led to a decline in the fertility rate
The results of the seventh census show that although the population of the mainland has achieved positive growth, the growth rate has declined, and the number of births in 2020 has set a new record.
Ren Zeping, Liang Jianzhang and other experts believe that in order to increase the fertility rate, it is necessary to reduce the cost of childbirth for families of childbearing age, and the issuance of childcare subsidies is the most important and direct way. Recently, with the implementation of the three-child policy, more and more places have introduced or plan to introduce birth or childcare subsidy policies, aiming to encourage childbirth, but the current subsidy is still insufficient, lower than most European countries.
The mainland government has realized the urgency of the population problem and has taken a series of measures. These include liberalizing family planning policies, providing childcare allowances, and expanding the provision of childcare services to encourage young people to have children. In addition, the government has made it a priority to improve the working environment and provide a better work-family balance.
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