South Korea has again recorded the world’s lowest fertility rate with the number sinking to a new low. The rate in the country first dropped lower than one child per woman in 2018. But on Wednesday, figures released by the government showed the figure had dropped to 0.81 – down three points from the previous year, and a sixth consecutive decline. In comparison, the average rate across the world’s most advanced economies is 1.6 children. Countries need at least two children per couple – a 2.1 rate – to keep their population at the same size, without migration. Fertility rates have “declined markedly” in the past six decades says the OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. But the trend has been particularly pronounced in South Korea, where family sizes have reduced in the span of a few generations. At the start of the 1970s women had four children on average. A declining population can put a country under immense strain. (BBC)…[+]