Single crisis: Korea pays 675 euros for a successful blind date

Ageing society
675 euros for a blind date: How Korea is fighting the single crisis

In Korea, the birth rate continues to fall. One of the reasons: being single is trendy. A singles festival is now supposed to change that – and even promises money for dating.

Beautiful people, great series, good food and of course K-pop: South Korea is totally on trend. But the East Asian country is struggling itself: society is changing, young people are having far too few children. With a singles festival, the city of Busan is now reversing the trend towards being alone. And it is even banking on money.

The Saha district will bring romance back to Busan in October with a huge blind date event. The event is aimed at people between 23 and 43 who live and work in the district, the authorities announced in June. Foreigners are also explicitly invited to register as daters. It’s easy to predict who will find happiness.

Single event: Money for dating

The rewards are staggered. Anyone who enters into a relationship after the date receives one million won from the state – around 675 euros. If there is a “sang-gyeon-rye” – a family reunion held before the wedding – another two million won are added. And if the couple even gets married, the city adds another 20 million won. In total, a couple can win almost 15,000 euros in rewards for “successfully” taking part in the event. There is also a contribution to the housing costs for five years.

However, all details are not yet known. Participants must apply explicitly. If the date parade is a success, the city could imagine repeating it annually, it is said.

Korea struggles with a shrinking population

Busan is not alone in its innovative initiative. Authorities across the country are trying to get a grip on the declining population. The massive drop in birth rates is a particular problem. In 1970, a South Korean woman had an average of 4.5 children, but by 1980 that figure had fallen to just two – and the trend is continuing to fall sharply. In 2018, the average fell to less than one child per woman for the first time, and last year it was just 0.7 children. One of the lowest in the world.

There are several reasons for this disadvantage. Housing is becoming more and more expensive, the cost of educating children has exploded. Mothers often had reservations about having a second child. However, the trend towards singledom is likely to have a greater effect. Consciously deciding against marriage is so widespread that there is now a term for it: Bihon. And the number of Bihon is increasing.

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Singleness as a movement

More than 50 percent of men in their thirties in South Korea are now single; if you look at both sexes, the figure is 42.5 percent – ​​an increase of 13.3 percent in the last ten years, according to Nikkei Asia. Only 17.6 percent of participants in a survey last year said they considered marriage a “must” in their lives. The reasons given in a survey were the increased costs, but also the burden of being a parent.

The reaction of the economy could fuel the crisis even further. In order not to put the voluntary singles at a disadvantage, large employers such as LG are increasingly offering wedding benefits to singles as well. A few extra days of vacation that were actually intended for the wedding or a bouquet of flowers instead of the bridal bouquet. All you have to do is register as a Bihon. NH Investment and Securities, for example, explained that they do not want to withhold the benefits of married people from conscious singles.

How big the long-term effects will be remains to be seen. More and more women are keeping the option open of simply having children later – by freezing their eggs. In the Marien Hospital in Seoul alone, the number has tripled in the last five years, reports “VOA News”. “I’m one of those who don’t want to have children,” says 35-year-old Lee Jang-mi on the site. “You just want to do other things, work, learn. For me, it’s surfing.” That’s why she’s considering freezing them. “If I regret it one day, it’ll be too late to change my mind.”

Sources: Korea Times, Nikkei Asia, Voa, Statista, UOS Times