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• Position: South Korea - Dwindling birthrates - Brief article

People who don't settle down and start families often get an earful from their parents. In South Korea, they hear it from the government too. Concerned about the country's plummeting birth rate--and its long-term effect on the nation's workforce--the government has begun sponsoring dating parties it hopes will lead to marriage and children. In 2011, the average age for South Korean women marrying for the first time hit 29.1, up from 24.8 in 1990; for men it jumped to 31.8 from 27.9 in 1990; and the birthrate sank to 1.15 children per woman, the lowest among developed nations. (In general, as countries get wealthier, people have fewer kids.) One reason is that Korean women are focusing more on...