South Korea: a pet is worth more than a child

Due to a sharp drop in the birth rate in South Korea, dogs and cats seem to be gradually replacing babies in their baby carriages.

In 2023, and for the first time, the number of sales of pet strollers exceeded those of children’s strollers, notes The Korea Times newspaper.

43% of stroller sales were for infants and 57% for pets, according to figures from Gmarket, the country’s leading online shopping platform.

According to data from Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, more than one in four households in the country own a pet to fill the gap left by childlessness, while the number of births in the country continues to decline.

In 2021, only 250,000 babies will have been born, compared with 270,000 in 2020 and 470,000 in 2010, to the point where South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks of a demographic emergency.

To top it all off, he himself has no children.