The nation with the world’s lowest fertility rate crashed through another record level in 2019. South Korea’s fertility rate declined to 0.92 children per woman in 2019 from 0.98 a year earlier. An article in the Nikkei Asian Review said many women in South Korea blame high housing prices, rising childcare costs and difficulty in returning to work after giving birth for why they are having few or no children.

The country’s fertility rate sunk below replacement levels in the early 1980s, but rebounded from their lows to as high as 1.76 children per woman in the early 1990s. Since then, however, birthrates have frequently fallen to fresh lows and show little sign of moving in a positive direction. Incredibly, South Korea had a total fertility of more than 4.5 children per woman just two generations ago.