Since the early 1960s, South Korea has been going through a rapid fertilitydecline, along with its socioeconomic development and effective family planningprograms. After achieving a desired replacement level of fertility in 1984, the totalfertility rate (TFR) of Korea has gradually declined to the level of lowest-low fertility.According to 2004 vital statistics, the TFR for Korea was 1.16-below the lowest-lowfertility level of 1.3. Also, Korea's fertility rates have fluctuated and varied spatially,even at the level of low fertility.Undoubtedly, Korean family planning programs have been effective inpopulation control through the last 40 years, but since 2000, the shift to pro-natalpolicies indicates that Korea's fertility transition is no longer a response to familyplanning policies. Rather, the level of socioeconomic development is still considered tohave a significant effect on Korea's fertility decline. Thus, in this thesis, the primaryobjective is to examine the socioeconomic determinants of fertility differentials and thevariation in low fertility among the counties in South Korea in 2004. Using data fromthe 2000 census and 2004 vital statistics, I tested the hypothesized relationships betweenthe level of socioeconomic development and fertility based on the demographic transition theory (DTT), by estimating several Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multipleregression models.Specifically, socioeconomic predictors, such as agricultural attainment, laborforce participation, and educational attainment, were primarily examined to test thevalidity of the DTT hypotheses. In addition, this thesis also examined the effects ofwomen's status and traditional norms and cultural values on variation in fertility. Myresults showed that the DTT is applicable to an accounting of the variance in fertilityrates among the Korean counties in 2004. Although the levels of fertility are extremelylow all across the country, it is apparent that socioeconomic conditions are having animpact on fertility differentials in Korea.
