SINGAPORE: As Singapore's birth rate hits a historic low, South Korea's modest but notable rebound offers a ray of hope and possible lessons, experts said.
Singapore's total fertility rate (TFR) fell to 0.87 in 2025, parliament was told on Thursday (Feb 26), continuing a slide that first pushed the country below 1.0 in 2023.
A TFR below one means the average woman has less than one child in her lifetime – far below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to keep the population from shrinking.
For South Korea, its TFR declined for eight consecutive years to a record low of 0.72 in 2023, the lowest of any country in the world. But in the two years since, it has edged upwards: 0.75 in 2024 and 0.8 in 2025.
In a landscape where most developed nations continue to see fertility rates fall, that reversal stands out. What drove it? And can Singapore replicate any of it?
Since 2006, the South Korean government has spent more than 360 trillion won (US$250 billion) on programmes to raise birth rates, including childcare subsidies, cash grants and housing incentives.
For years, these measures failed to move the needle – its TFR fell from 1.13 in 2006 to 0.72 in 2023.
But a more intensive push appears to have coincided with the uptick. In 2022, Seoul launched a 6.7 trillion won "Birth Support Project" to encourage marriages and childbirth in the capital, with welfare housing for newlyweds and expanded daycare capacity.
Parents receive 2 million won upon the birth of a child, and 3 million won for subsequent births. Since last year, newlyweds who register their marriage in Seoul get an additional 1 million won.
Parental leave has also been extended significantly. In 2025, the South Korean Cabinet approved legislation that allowed employees to apply for up to three years of shared parental leave.
Beyond financial incentives, cities like Seoul have rolled out dating programmes for time-poor singles, including officially organised social gatherings to help people find partners.
South Korean officials have pointed to something harder to legislate: a shift in social attitudes. Parents interviewed in a CNN report this month said that greater acceptance of parental leave, particularly from bosses, has made it easier to balance careers and family life.
Professor Jean Yeung of the National University of Singapore's Department of Paediatrics said many of South Korea’s measures mirror policies already in place in Singapore.
Singapore provides 16 weeks of paid maternity leave for eligible mothers and four weeks for eligible fathers, with 10 weeks of shared parental leave. South Korea's up to three years' entitlement for couples goes considerably further.
"This sent a loud and clear message that they are serious about changing gender norms and practices in society," said Prof Yeung of South Korea's parental leave policy.
Dr Kalpana Vignehsa, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), said South Korea's progress on workplace culture came through sustained schemes targeting employer practices over more than a decade, and that Singapore has room to move further in the same direction.
She pointed to companies rolling back flexible work arrangements and calling employees back to the office as subtle but real deterrents to parenthood.
"The government can come up with policies to say that parents get automatic leeway if they ask, that would make it easier for them," she said. "There are things they can do like that, to help workplaces understand that (raising fertility rates) has to be a collective push."
02:48 Min
South Korea's rebound has also coincided with more marriages, partly driven by a larger cohort of people in their 30s – the children of baby boomers now entering peak childbearing years.
Singapore's demographic picture is less favourable. Prof Yeung noted that the local "baby-bust generation" has nearly moved through its prime marriageable years. As of 2024, the median age of first-time mothers is 31.9 years.
As of 2025, Singapore has 164,500 women aged 30 to 34. Below that, the cohorts shrink sharply, with 131,270 women aged 25 to 29, and 107,600 aged 20 to 24. This suggests that fewer women will enter prime marriage and childbearing ages over the next decade.
Still, there may be a silver lining.
In South Korea in 2024, more than one in three babies were born to mothers aged 35 or older, and in Seoul, one in five births involved fertility treatment.
“Perhaps Singapore can do more in this aspect too to catch the end of the baby-bust generation childbearing time and enable more couples who want to have babies but are having difficulty doing that to achieve that aspiration,” said Prof Yeung, adding that further subsidies and leave for infertility treatment could help.
Experts are careful not to over-interpret South Korea's improvement. The TFR remains extremely low, and whether the increase will continue is uncertain.
IPS senior research fellow Tan Poh Lin said the rebound nevertheless signals that sustained messaging may be having some effect.
“The relentless, consistent public messaging backed by a blitz of incentive announcements from different sectors of society may have been especially cheering and emboldening for parents, and given them more negotiating power in workplaces,” she said.
Dr Kalpana agreed that changing mindsets requires patience and persistence. For one, the desire to start a family should be nurtured early, even in schools.
“It’s a legacy of ‘achievement’ culture, which is an intense focus on progress in your career, to be the best. That culture also has to shift,” she said.
“This culture is an obstacle in choosing to raise children, and an obstacle in choosing to have a relationship in the first place.”
Dr Kalpana also raised concerns about heavy smartphone use among youths, which she said weakens relationship formation and future marriage rates. She welcomed the recent ban on smartphones in secondary schools.
“Personalised entertainment devices can actually take the place of the time we spend doing out and meeting new people, now you can distract yourself from that loneliness very easily,” she said.
Ultimately, raising fertility is not a problem that governments can solve alone. It requires rebuilding community support, she said.
For example, childcare jobs, though rarely celebrated, play a “key role” in giving couples confidence to start families.
“We are missing the village," she said. "And the village is not going to look like what the kampung looked like before, but we need to find similar kinds of support to manage the many things involved in caring for children.”
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Singapore's total fertility rate (TFR) fell to 0.87 in 2025, parliament was told on Thursday (Feb 26), continuing a slide that first pushed the country below 1.0 in 2023.
A TFR below one means the average woman has less than one child in her lifetime – far below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to keep the population from shrinking.
For South Korea, its TFR declined for eight consecutive years to a record low of 0.72 in 2023, the lowest of any country in the world. But in the two years since, it has edged upwards: 0.75 in 2024 and 0.8 in 2025.
In a landscape where most developed nations continue to see fertility rates fall, that reversal stands out. What drove it? And can Singapore replicate any of it?
SPENDING BIG
Since 2006, the South Korean government has spent more than 360 trillion won (US$250 billion) on programmes to raise birth rates, including childcare subsidies, cash grants and housing incentives.
For years, these measures failed to move the needle – its TFR fell from 1.13 in 2006 to 0.72 in 2023.
But a more intensive push appears to have coincided with the uptick. In 2022, Seoul launched a 6.7 trillion won "Birth Support Project" to encourage marriages and childbirth in the capital, with welfare housing for newlyweds and expanded daycare capacity.
Parents receive 2 million won upon the birth of a child, and 3 million won for subsequent births. Since last year, newlyweds who register their marriage in Seoul get an additional 1 million won.
Parental leave has also been extended significantly. In 2025, the South Korean Cabinet approved legislation that allowed employees to apply for up to three years of shared parental leave.
Beyond financial incentives, cities like Seoul have rolled out dating programmes for time-poor singles, including officially organised social gatherings to help people find partners.
Related:
CULTURAL SHIFT
South Korean officials have pointed to something harder to legislate: a shift in social attitudes. Parents interviewed in a CNN report this month said that greater acceptance of parental leave, particularly from bosses, has made it easier to balance careers and family life.
Professor Jean Yeung of the National University of Singapore's Department of Paediatrics said many of South Korea’s measures mirror policies already in place in Singapore.
Singapore provides 16 weeks of paid maternity leave for eligible mothers and four weeks for eligible fathers, with 10 weeks of shared parental leave. South Korea's up to three years' entitlement for couples goes considerably further.
"This sent a loud and clear message that they are serious about changing gender norms and practices in society," said Prof Yeung of South Korea's parental leave policy.
Dr Kalpana Vignehsa, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), said South Korea's progress on workplace culture came through sustained schemes targeting employer practices over more than a decade, and that Singapore has room to move further in the same direction.
She pointed to companies rolling back flexible work arrangements and calling employees back to the office as subtle but real deterrents to parenthood.
"The government can come up with policies to say that parents get automatic leeway if they ask, that would make it easier for them," she said. "There are things they can do like that, to help workplaces understand that (raising fertility rates) has to be a collective push."
02:48 Min
THE DEMOGRAPHICS PROBLEM
South Korea's rebound has also coincided with more marriages, partly driven by a larger cohort of people in their 30s – the children of baby boomers now entering peak childbearing years.
Singapore's demographic picture is less favourable. Prof Yeung noted that the local "baby-bust generation" has nearly moved through its prime marriageable years. As of 2024, the median age of first-time mothers is 31.9 years.
As of 2025, Singapore has 164,500 women aged 30 to 34. Below that, the cohorts shrink sharply, with 131,270 women aged 25 to 29, and 107,600 aged 20 to 24. This suggests that fewer women will enter prime marriage and childbearing ages over the next decade.
Still, there may be a silver lining.
In South Korea in 2024, more than one in three babies were born to mothers aged 35 or older, and in Seoul, one in five births involved fertility treatment.
“Perhaps Singapore can do more in this aspect too to catch the end of the baby-bust generation childbearing time and enable more couples who want to have babies but are having difficulty doing that to achieve that aspiration,” said Prof Yeung, adding that further subsidies and leave for infertility treatment could help.
Related:
THE LONG GAME
Experts are careful not to over-interpret South Korea's improvement. The TFR remains extremely low, and whether the increase will continue is uncertain.
IPS senior research fellow Tan Poh Lin said the rebound nevertheless signals that sustained messaging may be having some effect.
“The relentless, consistent public messaging backed by a blitz of incentive announcements from different sectors of society may have been especially cheering and emboldening for parents, and given them more negotiating power in workplaces,” she said.
Dr Kalpana agreed that changing mindsets requires patience and persistence. For one, the desire to start a family should be nurtured early, even in schools.
“It’s a legacy of ‘achievement’ culture, which is an intense focus on progress in your career, to be the best. That culture also has to shift,” she said.
“This culture is an obstacle in choosing to raise children, and an obstacle in choosing to have a relationship in the first place.”
Dr Kalpana also raised concerns about heavy smartphone use among youths, which she said weakens relationship formation and future marriage rates. She welcomed the recent ban on smartphones in secondary schools.
“Personalised entertainment devices can actually take the place of the time we spend doing out and meeting new people, now you can distract yourself from that loneliness very easily,” she said.
Ultimately, raising fertility is not a problem that governments can solve alone. It requires rebuilding community support, she said.
For example, childcare jobs, though rarely celebrated, play a “key role” in giving couples confidence to start families.
“We are missing the village," she said. "And the village is not going to look like what the kampung looked like before, but we need to find similar kinds of support to manage the many things involved in caring for children.”
Continue reading...