Births are rising again in Seoul. As the number of marriages that began increasing in 2023 is translating into more births with a time lag, Seoul's birth growth rate in the first half of this year ranked No. 1 nationwide.
To sustain the hard-won rebound in births, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is putting policy emphasis on "care after birth" beyond birth support. The city is expanding support to cover nighttime and holiday childcare, emergency care, play spaces, and developmental screenings so parents can raise children without giving up their jobs.
◇ Even with overtime or weekend work, parents can leave their children
For dual-income couples with young children, the most frequent challenge is sudden "care gaps." It is hard to find a place to leave a child when overtime or weekend work arises, or when parents must be away from home for medical appointments or business trips.
To fill these gaps, the city operates nighttime-extended, 24-hour, and holiday childcare centers. According to the city on the 9th, as of the end of last year there were 1,930 nighttime-extended centers, 21 24-hour centers, and 52 holiday centers. Parents with irregular work hours or frequent night and weekend shifts can use them as needed.
When the childcare center hours do not align with parents' quitting time, families can use a "hub-type nighttime extended childcare center." The program places dedicated teachers at regional hub centers in recognition that some centers cannot run separate night classes. The expense is free for up to 60 hours a month.
A childcare teacher or aide takes the child to the hub center, and parents pick up the child on their way home from work. As of the end of last year, 355 centers were operating. They run on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., and are available not only to children attending other childcare centers or kindergartens but also to infants and toddlers cared for at home. Childcare fees are free, and only dinner costs are paid by parents.
There is also the "Seoul-type hourly specialized childcare center" for when a child needs to be cared for only for a few hours. It allows parents who need brief care due to a job interview, medical appointment, or sudden outing to leave a child by the hour. The goal is to let families use public childcare facilities when needed without relying on relatives or private care. Children from 6 months old to preschoolers under 7 can be left, and the expense is 2,000 won per hour.
◇ Children can run and play freely outside the home
Beyond places to leave children, spaces where they can run and play freely are also a concern for parents. Families with cramped homes or for whom private play facilities are a financial burden find it hard to locate places to spend time with their children.
To address this, the city is expanding public play spaces known as "Seoul-type kids' cafés." They can be used at relatively low expense, and each facility offers play equipment and programs tailored to infants' and toddlers' ages and developmental stages.
Kids' cafés, which were centered on indoor spaces, have expanded outdoors. On weekends, the city runs the "Here-and-there Seoul-type kids' café," which sets up mobile play equipment in plazas and parks. In May this year, the "Green-green Seoul-type kids' café," designed for families to spend time in nature such as forests and the Han River, opened for the first time in Seoul Forest.
As of the end of July this year, a total of 235 Seoul-type kids' cafés are operating in the city, including 134 indoor facilities run by the city and districts.
◇ For children late to speak, free developmental screenings and treatment referrals
Securing a childcare place does not erase all parents' worries. If a child speaks later than peers or struggles to get along with friends, families may want a developmental assessment but miss the right time because they do not know where to seek help. Hospital wait times and testing and treatment expense also burden parents.
In June 2023, the city opened the nation's first "Seoul Child Development Support Center." It provides free assessments of development in areas such as language, cognition, and behavior for infants and toddlers from 15 months old to preschool age.
If screening results raise concern for developmental delay, the center conducts in-depth evaluations and supports parent coaching and referrals to treatment institutions. For children who do not need immediate treatment but require ongoing observation, the center offers a developmental guide and a developmental play program, and retests them six months later. As of the end of July this year, 22,682 infants and toddlers had received support.
◇ Evaluation of "Seoul as a good place to raise children" is also rising
Parents' evaluations of Seoul's childrearing environment are also improving. In a survey by the Seoul Institute, caregivers' assessment that "Seoul is a good city to have and raise children" rose from 3.50 points in 2023 to 3.58 points in 2024 and 3.66 points last year. The share of childless couples who said they intend to have a child within three years also increased from 68.5% to 79.4%.
The city believes that, beyond cash support such as childbirth grants, reducing care gaps that parents directly encounter in daily life is key to sustaining the rebound in low births.
Ma Chae-suk, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Women and Family Policy Office, said, "Responding to low births must not end with cheering people on to have children," adding, "We will provide tightly linked support across childcare, play, development, and care so parents can feel at ease when they come home late, suddenly need care, or worry about a child's development."