Netizens are exploring strategies to boost South Korea's alarmingly declining birth rate.

As per the Bank of Korea's findings, South Korea's total birth rate could surge if housing prices could regress to their 2015 levels. This suggests that with improvements in various conditions, the modest birth rate in South Korea as of 2022 could theoretically reach the average level of the 34 OECD countries.

However, this scenario includes the effects of variables that are difficult to change in the short term, such as urban population density and the proportion of extramarital births. Overall improvements in institutional conditions and socio-economic-cultural factors may also contribute to an uptick in the birth rate.

In short, these are six potential improvements in conditions that could lead to a higher birth rate, listed in order of their expected impact:

1. Reducing urban population concentration (+0.414 increase)
2. Allowing extramarital births (+0.159)

3. Increasing youth employment (+0.119)
4. Activating parental leave (extending it from 10.3 weeks to the OECD average of 61.4 weeks) (+0.096)
5. Providing additional federal financial support for families (+0.055)

6. Ensuring housing price stability (+0.002)

On an online forum, one netizen humorously referred to the most impactful method of decreasing urban population concentration as the "destruction of the Republic of Seoul." This satirical term pokes fun at the concentration of livelihoods and opportunities in Seoul, which attracts a significant portion of the population solely to the capital.

Reactions include:

"People don't really want to make these changes though"
"Seoul is like a chicken coop"
"I want to leave Seoul as soon as I can if there are jobs in other cities..."
"This is true...my friends living in Seoul are the only ones not getting married"
"There are a lot of social gender-related issues though"
"If someone destroys the Republic of Seoul then all the young people would eventually scatter and the problem would be solved..."
"I think the bigger problem is the gender war and misogyny"
"It's a really serious problem, though. In the suburban areas, there aren't any jobs. There are only cafes, restaurants, and a few government offices. There aren't any mid-size companies or IT industries, so the young people all go to Seoul"
"In other countries, there is at least one big company that represents that area..."
"If you can't go to college or get a job in Seoul, then psychologically people feel ostracized and give up on marriage"

"If we are to prevent the Korean people from disappearing from this earth, we really do have to improve all those things. If not, then there will no longer be any South Koreans on this land. There are some people talking about North Koreans coming down one day, but I think there is an even higher chance that it would become China instead."

"I have no desire to share DNA with anyone here for a child though..."

"In reality, people and companies fear that stepping away from Seoul means automatic doom"