South Korea To Give Million Won Each To Families Of Newborns Amid Concerns Of Of Population Halving

Amid fears of a severe population crisis in South Korea, the government has unveiled a monthly allowance of one million won ($740) for every family with a newborn child.

What Happened: Last week, South Korea's fertility rate dropped further, shattering its own world record — and to address the issue, the government, in its budget proposal, introduced "parent pay," Bloomberg reported.

Beginning next year, the administration will hand out 700,000 won ($522) monthly for the newborns and then rise to the full amount in 2024.

See Also: Putin To Give A Million Rubles Each To All Women Who Give Birth To 10 Or More Children

This was among a series of election campaign pledges by President Yoon Suk Yeol's government to address the country's collapsing population.

The South Korean government's statistics office earlier revealed that the women in the country were estimated to have an average of just 0.81 children over their lifetimes based on the data from 2021, down from 0.84 a year earlier. According to the United Nations projections, its population of 51 million people faces the prospect of more than halving by the end of this century.

Before this, Moon Jae-in's administration provided the families of the newborn child with 300,000 won ($224) a month over their first year. 

Meanwhile, last week, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk reiterated his warning about potential global population collapse due to low birth rates amid worrying South Korean and Japan Data. In a tweet on Friday, Musk said, "population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming."

Read Next: Elon Musk Serves Yet Another 'Population Collapse' Warning Amid Worrying South Korea, Japan Data