”Marriage is scary”... A look into the reasons why people don't have children = Korea

Although the total fertility rate (the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime) rose for the first time in nine years to 0.75 last year, the attitude of young people in the 2040 generation toward marriage and childbirth remains sad.
The overwhelming majority of respondents expressed negative emotions, such as sadness, fear, and disgust.
The institute announced the results of an analysis of about 50,000 posts related to marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing posted on the social media platform “India.” Since November last year, the institute has been analyzing the following topics: marriage, childbirth, child-rearing, childcare leave, population of the Seoul metropolitan area, and population of rural areas.
We collected posts containing key demographic-related keywords and analyzed young people's perceptions through frequency, topic model (LDA), network, and sentiment analysis.
As a result, 32.3% of the marriage-related posts were classified as sadness, 24.6% as fear, and 23.8% as disgust for childbirth-related posts.
The survey found that the most common emotions expressed were fear (21.3%) and childbirth (21.3%). The percentage of posts classified as happy emotions was around 10% of the total, with child-rearing (13.1%), marriage (9.3%) and childbirth (7.4%).
The institute's interpretation is that despite the birth rate having started to increase, negative attitudes toward marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing remain deeply rooted among young people.
It was found that economic factors such as "money" and "home" acted as core factors in the perception of marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing.
It was the most common keyword, appearing in 28.9% of posts related to this issue, and was the fifth most common (13.2%) among posts related to childbirth. The keyword "home" was also mentioned in the same category as childcare (18.7%) and childcare leave.
It ranked 10th among posts related to marriage (29%). 57.9% of posts related to marriage were analyzed to be on the theme of "marriage preparations and conditions."
The most common topics were the decline in the number of women working and the socio-economic changes (36.8%), and childbirth and financial support (19.9%).
Among the posts related to childcare, the most common was childcare at home and the role of parents (69.6%), followed by childcare support systems at work and
Career management (30.4%) was also a major theme. Posts related to childcare leave included: △Dividing childcare and household responsibilities (37.8%) △Juggling work and childcare at the same time (24.4%) △Related topics regarding childcare leave
The next most common answer was practical/social issues (19.6%). The report states that the younger generation perceives marriage and childbirth as a financial burden, and that rather than the existence of support systems such as childcare leave, they are concerned about the difficulties of actually using them.
"The economic burden and work-family stress faced by young people are a major obstacle to overcoming the population crisis," said Yoo Hye-jeong, director of the Population Research Center at the Korea Future Population Institute.
"We need a strong policy drive to resolve the difficulties of balancing work and family life," he said, "and for companies to create family-friendly working environments and promote childcare leave, and for the government to promote housing stability and expand substantial childcare support measures for all.
We need to concentrate our resources," he said.