This is the first time that such a phenomenon has occurred on the planet. This year, there is a country where people bought more dog strollers than baby strollers! Why then?
This is a first, it’s astonishing… This year, there is indeed a country where sales of strollers for dogs have exceeded those intended for babies. And not just a little! Indeed, if today it remains very rare to come across such machines in the streets of France or in those of our European neighbors, in certain Asian countries, the practice has become commonplace.
And the explanation is simple: one of these countries is facing a real demographic hemorrhage linked to a very sharp decline in birth rates. In 2023, the fertility rate in this Asian country will even reach a record level of 0.72 children per woman, the lowest in the world. Moreover, in less than ten years, it has seen its number of births reduce by 200,000, going from 250,000 in 2021 to 470,000 in 2010. A major demographic crisis partly caused by the rise in the cost of life in this country as explained by the American economic journal Fortune.
According to experts, this phenomenon is linked to “the skyrocketing cost of raising children, the sluggish job market, and the ingrained sexism in these environments that lead to the motherhood penalty”. It should actually be noted that the country concerned is the OECD state where the pay gap is the highest between women and men, with a difference of no less than 31.2%!
No wonder people in South Korea prefer to adopt animals rather than start a family. In a country where raising a child has become a luxury, couples no longer have children, but they adopt dogs. In 2022, six million households owned pets, or one in four South Koreans today! To believe The Korean TimesSouth Koreans therefore continue to buy strollers…
But for their four-legged companions! According to a study revealed by the newspaper, based on sales data from the merchant site Gmarket, “43% of strollers sold on the platform in the first three quarters of this year were for infants, while the remaining 57% were strollers designed for animals, mainly dogs and cats”. Data which therefore confirms the animal VS babies trend, supported by the fact that veterinary clinics are multiplying in South Korea, where pediatric units in hospitals tend to close.
