14th largest economy in the world. Population dropping 50,000 per year?

14th largest economy in the world. Population dropping 50,000 per year?

If we are asked for a country which is full of elderly people, chances are we may say it’s Japan. Actually, the reason for such a big population of the elderly is because the fertility rate of Japan is very low. In fact, way lower than the minimum 2.1 per woman in order to ensure the population is not dropping in number with every passing year.

Actually, one of the lowest if not the lowest in terms of fertility rate would be South Korea. They are the 14th largest economy in the world. Info source: investopedia.com (click here to read)

I read somewhere that it’s down to lower than 1 per woman. However, when I refer to statista.com, the below would the number. Still extremely low and in fact this is explained by the next chart which is showing a decreasing population in South Korea every year!

Population dropping every year from 2024 to 2029!

In 2024, the population in South Korea is 51.54 million. In 2029, it has dropped to 51.29 million. This is a drop of 250,000 over 5 years or around 50,000 per year.

This 50,000 per year is a very significant number because it meant that if these 50,000 population used to stay in 25,000 homes (2 to a home), then these 25,000 homes have lost their owners in a year and over 5 years, a total of 125,000 would have become empty.

Other implications to the economy?

Fewer people may be productively working and thus, the country may get lower tax revenues but the government would have to shoulder a heavier burden of caring for the elderly. With a fertility rate of 1.1 for example, the population would one day be halved from the current number because when two old people leave the world, only one baby is born.

Schools would have to be closed… Teachers would need to find a new job… The economy would continue to shrink unless they could use technology to enhance the productivity. Of course, this would not be happening overnight. According to an article in bbc.com (click to read in full) this will happen: “Korea’s population is estimated to halve by the year 2100.”

Current population of 51 million would be just 25 million in 2100. This is still 76 years away. So, the South Korean government still have time to reverse this. In fact Seoul is now studying the possibility of offering S$99,000 (RM344,349) for every new baby born. Article in straitsttimes.com.sg here. I just think that perhaps money alone cannot solve the underlying reasons why so few babies are born yeah.

What about Malaysia then?

Our fertility rate has fallen to just 1.6 (source: freemalaysiatoday.com) and this meant that even if our population may not halve as fast as South Korea, we should also remember that we are a much smaller nation yeah. In other words, our government should also start to be more serious in tackling this sooner rather than later. Demand for goods and services will reduce when population number drops and there will be a lot more pressure on the future government too.

Our population may peak by 2068 and start declining after that. Info source: worldpopulationreview.com

My advice? Get married and starting producing. 🙂

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