Population under 18 Years of Age Accounts for 25 Percent of Total Population

Due to low birth rates, the number of those under the age of 18 has decreased by half compared to that of 40 years ago.

Consequently, the growth potential is expected to decline as the supply of new manpower has decreased.

According to the “2004 Adolescent Statistics” that the Department of Statistics announced on May 6, with July of this year as a starting point, the number of those under the age of 18 is estimated to be 12.099 million, comprising 25.1 percent of the total population (48.199 million).

This ratio does not reach half of that in 1965 (53.1 percent) when the percentage of those under the age 18 was at its peak. The Department of Statistics analyze that a decline in birth rates was a direct cause of this ratio. In fact, the total birth rate, which indicates the number of children a woman will have during her reproductive years, has been constantly decreasing from 4.53 children in 1970, 2.83 in 1980, 1.59 in 1990, to 1.17 in 2002. The number of adolescents in the age group 9-24 increased during this period from 9.121 million to 11.242 million, however, the percentage that this age group comprises in the total population decreased from 31.8 percent to 23.3 percent.

The total student population, which indicates the population in the schooling age group (6-21), is found to have drastically declined. With July 1 as the starting point, the standard student population reached 10.759 million, 3.642 million (25.3 percent) reduced from the peak of 1980(14.401 million).

Jin-Hup Song jinhup@donga.com