 "In South Korea, dog strollers outsell prams for babies. Here’s why that is a worry")
Dogs are considered man’s best friend and it seems that South Korea is taking this far too seriously. Instead of having babies, South Koreans prefer to have canines, which has led to sales of dog strollers surpassing that of baby strollers for the first time in its history.
While some may think it’s funny, officials in South Korea are barking mad as it is yet another indicator of Seoul’s declining birth rate — the Asian country holds the honour of now having the world’s lowest fertility rates.
We take a closer look at this phenomenon of South Korea’s shrinking birth rate and rising pet rate.
A dog-stroller boom
A report from Gmarket, an e-commerce platform operator, in the country reveals that sales of pet strollers have exceeded those of baby strollers in 2023 and this trend continues this year too. In 2023, data showed that 43 per cent of the total number of strollers sold on the platform during the first three quarters were for human infants, while the remaining 57 per cent were strollers designed for animals, mainly dogs and cats.
The data shows a consistent trend — since 2021, the ratio of infant stroller sales is falling. That year the percentage fell to 67 per cent and it is now 43 per cent. Meanwhile, sales of pet strollers continues to rise — from 33 per cent in 2021 to 57 per cent this year.
Yoon Hyun-shin, head of Pet Friends, South Korea’s largest online pet-commerce platform, also concurs with this data. In a Wall Street Journal report, he states that dog-stroller sales have quadrupled since 2019. “Pet ownership is rising, and so is spending on pets as people choose them over children,” Yoon said.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThis is reflected through data provided by Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Households with a pet have risen phenomenally — from 3.5 million in 2012 to a whopping six million in 2023.
Notably, strollers ferrying dogs have become a part of South Korea’s daily landscape. One can often see men and women carrying their canine friends in snazzy pet carriers in different cities, especially in Seoul’s Forest Park.
A demographic emergency
The news of a boom in sales of pet strollers comes at a very crucial juncture in South Korea. The country has the lowest fertility rate in the world — the average number of children that would be born per woman was 0.78 in 2022 and 0.72 in 2023. The rate is well below the 2.1 figure needed to maintain a stable population.
The situation prompted South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol — who incidentally has no children of his own, but is a pet parent to at least 10 cats and dogs — to declare the plummeting birth rate a “national emergency” and announced the creation of a “ Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counterplanning ”.
“We will mobilise all of the nation’s capabilities to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency,” he said in May.
In fact, South Korean officials have come up with many schemes and methods to encourage the flagging fertility rate in the country. The government announced a financial incentive of 35 million (Rs 22 lakh) to 50 million won (Rs 31 lakh) to couples to have children. As per one report by The Guardian, the country has since 2006 spent over $270 billion in schemes for couples such as cash subsidies, babysitting services and infertility treatment.
Additionally, the BBC said that couples who have children would be given free taxis. There was also news that Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon considered setting up a matchmaking programme on behalf of the city.
**Also read: How low birth rate in South Korea has forced it to turn to foreign nannies**No baby fever in South Korea
However, what’s the reason behind the low birth rate in South Korea?
Most women in South Korea point to the country’s high cost of living and the potential harm having a child can have to their career as reasons for their choosing to be childless.
The country’s workhours don’t help either; Korean work hours are notoriously long and many women say that they don’t have time for anything else after they finish their work and return home. Moreover, the importance linked to one’s job has been one of the reasons why people opt to not have children. Economist Lyman Stone told NPR, “There’s a sense [in South Korea] that, particularly for men but increasingly for women as well, your contribution in the office is really what makes you a person of status and standing in society.”
The pressures of South Korean culture is another reason why people are refraining from having children. Jungmin Kwon, an associate professor at Portland State University in Oregon who specialises in East Asian popular culture, told DW that the pressures of South Korean society can be stifling.
“According to many studies, significant factors include the cost and effort involved in childcare,” she said. “Korea is famous for its extensive private education market and it is difficult to go against an atmosphere in which it is taken for granted that parents will spend a lot of money on various private education programs from a young age in order to compete with other children.”
South Korea’s patriarchal nature is another factor why many women are opting out of motherhood. As Kwon notes, “Many women do not want to constrain their lives by choosing not only not to have children, but also not to get married.”
Instead, many of these women choose to own pets. Kang Seung-min in a Seoul suburb is one of those women. She has a brown poodle named Coco and speaking to Wall Street Journal, she said, “I don’t want to get married. I’d rather spend money on my dog.”
However, the decision by women not to have babies and have pups has unsettled some Korean politicians. South Korea labour minister Kim Moon-soo said last year: “What I worry about is young people not loving each other. Instead, they love their dogs and carry them around. They don’t get married, and they don’t have children.”
With inputs from agencies
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