South Korea's Military Recruit Shrinks by 20% Due to Low Birthrate

South Korea’s military shrank by 20 per cent in the past six years to 450,000 troops, largely due to a sharp drop in the population of males of enlistment age for mandatory service in the country with the world’s lowest birthrate, a report said on Aug 10.

The dramatic decline in the pool of available males for military service is also causing a shortfall in the number of officers and could result in operational difficulty if it continues, the Defence Ministry said in the report. The report was made to the ruling Democratic Party MP Choo Mi-ae, whose office released it.

South Korea’s military has steadily declined since the early 2000s, when it had about 690,000 soldiers. The pace accelerated during the late 2010s, and there were about 563,000 active-duty soldiers and officers in 2019.

North Korea is believed to have an active-duty military of about 1.2 million, according to the latest estimate by the Defence Ministry in 2022.

In the period between 2019 and 2025, the population of 20-year-old males, which is the age when most men who pass a physical exam enlist for military service, declined by 30 per cent to 230,000, according to government data.