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Pet Strollers Overtake Baby Prams in South Korea. This shift highlights the country’s extremely low fertility rate, now the lowest globally. In 2022, South Korea’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 0.78, far below the replacement level. E-commerce platform Gmarket reported that 57% of strollers sold in 2023 were for pets, while only 43% were for babies. In 2021, 33% of strollers were for pets compared to 67% for babies, showing a dramatic change in just two years. As fewer children are born, more people in South Korea are choosing to raise pets instead. The number of households with pets rose to over six million in 2022, up from 3.6 million a decade earlier. President Yoon Suk Yeol has called the declining birth rate a “national emergency.” In response, a new “Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counterplanning” was created to address the crisis. Economic pressures, including the high cost of living, are considered the main reasons for South Korea's demographic crisis. The government provides financial incentives for couples, offering 35m-50m won for child support until the age of seven. Marriages have also declined by 40% over the past decade, further contributing to the country’s population concerns.
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