By Hafsah Khanam
South Korea's $240 billion matchmaking campaign aims to reverse the world's lowest birth rate.
A South Korean couple on their wedding day. Shin Su-yeop. CC BY 2.0 KR.
South Korea is facing a demographic emergency, and its government has responded with an unusual set of measures. Cash incentives and government-sponsored matchmaking events are just some of the varied strategies aimed at encouraging young people to fall in love, get married and start families.
For years, South Korea has recorded the world’s lowest total fertility rate. If current trends persist, the population is projected to shrink by roughly a third by the early 2070s. By then, nearly half of all South Koreans will be 65 or older.
The scale of the government's response has been enormous. Over the past two decades, South Korea has poured more than 360 trillion won, or about $240 billion, into policies and programs meant to reverse the decline. For most of that period, the fertility rate kept falling regardless, hitting a low point of 0.72 births per woman in 2023.
However, there are early signs of a turnaround. The fertility rate picked up slightly in both 2024 and 2025, and the modest recovery continued into 2026, reaching a peak of 0.99 in January and averaging 0.95 during the first quarter. It's a welcome shift, but it still leaves South Korea far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to keep the population stable.
This small progress stems in part from initiatives at the local level, where some officials have taken the unconventional step of arranging dates for young singles. Back in 2016, Lee Tae-hoon, mayor of Daegu’s Dalseo district, launched a matchmaking program that included building a park specifically designed for couples to visit. “I want to teach young people that it's important to have kids,” he said, warning that inaction would leave the district's future looking bleak.
The program has been successful for some. Jung Ye-eun and Jin Hyun-gu met at one of Dalseo's matchmaking events and are now married and considering starting a family. Jin noted that meeting his wife would have been difficult without the program's help.
Elsewhere in Daegu, government employee Kim Seon-mi organizes matchmaking events every other month at romantic locations decorated with flowers and banners. She handpicks 10 men and 10 women from a pool of applicants and brings in a dating coach to help spark connections. Over the course of nine years, her program has led to 179 marriages.
Similar efforts have spread nationwide. In Hampyeong County, couples who meet through a government-sponsored event and later marry can receive up to 10 million won, roughly $6,600. And in Seoul, a city-run dating event along the Han River drew over 3,000 applicants competing for just 100 spots.
Beyond matchmaking, the government is also offering financial incentives to ease the burden of starting a family. In Incheon, the city government provides housing and childcare support to newlyweds for less than $1 per day. The national government provides a lump-sum payment of about 2 million won, or roughly $1,330, for the first child, with the amount rising to 3 million won ($2,000) for subsequent children.
Despite the scale of these incentives, many South Koreans remain unpersuaded. A recent survey by job portal Incruit found that three in five working South Koreans consider marriage optional.
Yoo Young-yi, a 30-year-old employee at a financial company in Seoul, traced a stark generational shift within her own family: her grandmother had six children, her mother had two and she plans to have none.
“My husband and I like babies so much ... but there are things that we'd have to sacrifice if we raised kids,” she said. “So it's become a matter of choice between two things, and we've agreed to focus more on ourselves.”
Yoo’s decision stems partly from watching female colleagues call their children from the office bathroom to check on them or leave work early when a child fell ill. She said these burdens never seemed to be shared by her male coworkers.
Similarly, other young South Koreans cite a competitive job market, housing costs, gender inequality and the high cost of raising a child as reasons for delaying or forgoing marriage and children. Furthermore, many who feel they have failed to meet strict societal benchmarks, such as attending top universities or securing stable careers, doubt they can comfortably raise a family within the country's limited social safety net.
Despite these concerns, South Korea's recent rise in births suggests that the incentives may be offering slight relief. That said, the country remains far from replacement-level fertility, and the underlying pressures fueling this decline remain largely unaddressed.
Hafsah Khanam
Hafsah is an English grad student from India. When not curled up with a book and a steaming cup of chai, she can be found traveling, inhaling the nearest snack, and spending time with friends and family. She aspires to pursue a PhD.