A research study has concluded that it takes a total of 260 million Won ($231,523) to raise a single child from birth to university graduation. In particular, private education costs proved to be the biggest share, accounting for 23 percent of those total costs.

Kim Seung-won, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), said Monday that according to a recently released report on the cost of child rearing in Korea, it cost 262 million Won to raise a child for 22 years, from birth to university graduation, as of 2009. In the 2003 report, the figure came to 198.7 million Won, and in 2006 it came to 232 million Won.

By age, the report calculated that it cost 24.66 million for the child’s first three years and 29.38 million Won for ages 3 to 5. For the child’s six years of elementary school, it cost 63 million Won, the middle school years cost 35.35 million, and high school cost 41.54 million Won. The most money was spent during the university years, when 68.11 million Won was spent.

In the first three years of life, the biggest cost was food, which cost a monthly average of 122,000 Won. In elementary, middle and high school, the biggest cost was private education, which amounted to 286,000 Won, 341,000 and 335,000 Won a month, respectively. In the university years, university tuition was the biggest expenditure at 541,000 Won a month. Educational costs alone accounted for 38.3 percent of total costs. The average monthly educational cost for one child was 1,009,000 Won, and of this, private education accounted for the biggest share at 230,000 Won a month, while public education accounted for 153,000 Won.

Kim said the high costs of child rearing are not only a direct cause for the low birth rate, but also produces inequalities from the start, with a high possibility that the cycle of poverty will be repeated. In particular, with private education costs accounting for roughly 23 percent of total educational costs, arguments that private education is ruining both the nation and families cannot but help come to the fore.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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Essential vocabulary:birth rate:출산율/the cycle of poverty: 빈곤의 순환