A Spotlight onFertility Trends Society at a Glance:Asia/Pacific2025 A SPOTLIGHT ON FERTILITY TRENDS This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed andarguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty overany territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. ISBN 978-92-64-64681-0 (print)ISBN 978-92-64-57995-8 (PDF)ISBN 978-92-64-98499-8 (HTML) Society at a Glance: Asia/PacificISSN 2408-915X (print)ISSN 2408-9168 (online) Photo credits:Cover © Patrick Foto/Shutterstock.com. Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found at: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/support/corrigenda.html.© OECD 2025 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Attribution– you must cite the work.Translations– you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text:In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and thetranslation, only the text of original work should be considered valid.Adaptations– you must cite the original work and add the following text:This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed inthis adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.Third-party material– the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and forany claims of infringement.You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work.Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shallbe Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one. Foreword Thissixthedition ofSociety at a Glance: Asia/Pacificprovides an overview of social indicators for the region. Quantitativeevidence on social indicators such as poverty, social expenditures, and demographic trends across countries in Asia andthe Pacific helpseconomiesidentify where they can learn from the experience of other countries. This edition ofSociety at a Glance Asia/Pacificputs a spotlight on fertility trends across the region.Chapter1presents dataon trendsfor some countriesacross the region as well as policy indicators. It considers theinternational literature with aparticular view to the Asia/Pacific region, but also summarises findings fromOECD-wide regressions on the impact onfertility trends of public family policy,labour market factors, and household costs items.Thechapter also draws from earlierwork undertaken by theOECDsEmployment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee, includingOECD (2024),Society at aGlance:2024:OECD Social Indicators;OECD (2023),Exploring Norway’s, Fertility, Work, and Family Policy Trends,andOECD (2019),Rejuvenating Korea. Chapter2provides a guide to help readers in understanding the structure of OECD social indicators, whileChapters3to7presentfivesocial indicators each onGeneral Context, Self-sufficiency, Equity, Health and Social Cohesion. This editionincludes data for 36countries, including thefourOECDcountries in the region, as well as Indonesia and Thailand, thetwoaccession countries in the region. Adraft of this report was discussed at themeetings of the OECD Working Party on Social Policy and the regionalmeetingoffamily policy andsocial policy experts organised by the OECD/KoreaPolicyCentreinNovember2024. Comments bydelegates to thesemeetings are gratefully acknowledged. Thisreport was prepared by WillemAdema and Alexandre Lloyd with support from PabloMinondoCanto,JúliaCotsCapell, AliciaTakeuchi and MaikoYagi and contributions byPaulineFron, MaximeLadaique, LucaLorenzoni,TakuyoOzaki and AndrewReilly. Professor StuartGietel-Basten commented onChapter1of the report. This report was prepared in the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) under the leadershipof StefanoScarpetta (Director of ELS), MarkPearson (Deputy Director of ELS), and MonikaQueisser (Senior Counsellorand Head oftheSocial PolicyDivision). The many colleagues who provided assistance includeMarie-AurélieElkurd andLucyHulett. Table ofcontents Foreword Acronyms and conventional signs Executive summary OECD/Korea Policy Centre 1 Fertility trends in the Asia/Pacific region: Underlying drivers and what role for policy? IntroductionandmainfindingsFewer and later births in almos