- South Korea has a fertility crisis, with the capital Seoul particularly hard-hit.
- The city is proposing $730 incentives for reversing vasectomies and tubal ligations.
- It is part of a suite of incentives meant to increase the country's perilously low birth rate.
Last year, South Korea's capital earned an unwelcome distinction: the least fertile city in the least fertile country in the world.
Now Seoul is seeking solutions, including offering up to $730 each to 100 people to reverse their vasectomies or untie their tubes.
According to The Washington Post, Seoul's government allocated $73,000 in a proposed budget to cover the costs related to the reversals.
The outlet reported that most of the cost is to cover medication and hospital stays, seeing as the cost of the procedure itself is already covered by South Korea's national health insurance.
According to the Post, the proposed budget also includes about $5.9 million for medical care for pregnant patients over 35 and an additional $1.6 million for public wedding venues.
The provision is aimed at easing the financial burden of starting a family, the Post said.
Without considering immigration, countries need a fertility rate of about 2.1 to maintain a stable population. Fertility rates represent the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime.
The global average is about 2.2, according to The Lancet.
In South Korea, however, the national fertility rate was 0.72 in 2023. It's even lower in Seoul, where it hit 0.55 last year.
On its current trajectory, South Korea's population of 51 million is on track to halve by 2100.
The fertility crisis has been blamed on factors including the rising cost of living and raising a child.
The South Korean government has invested billions to encourage couples to have more children, including financial incentives.
These have included subsidies for women to freeze their eggs, bonuses to companies that offer pro-childcare policies, and an allowance system that gives all parents with newborns $750 a month until their baby turns one.
Companies are also trying to help. Business Insider's Matthew Loh reported on how two South Korean firms offer employees up to $75,000 to have children.
The incentivization to reverse tubal ligation or vasectomies isn't a first in the country, where other local governments are also taking action to address ailing birth rates.
Other cities, including Gimcheon, about 125 miles southeast of Seoul, and Gunpo, 15 miles south of the capital, have offered similar subsidies in recent years.
