Anchor: A new survey finds that families who have children aged nine or younger spend a third of their income on childcare. With the burden of such costs weighing on families, a new trend is emerging in which families are placing importance on substance rather than price, when it comes to their children. Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: A survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family found that families who have children aged nine or under spent one-million-70-thousand won a month on average on childcare. That’s nearly a third of some three-point-five million won in households’ average monthly income.
 
Families who had infants aged under three spent heavily on baby food and babysitting while households with children aged between four and six spent significantly on nursery fees and kindergarten tuition.
 
According to the survey, families with elementary school students in lower grades spent 64 percent of their income on private education fees.
 
With such costs weighing on most families, a growing number of parents are seeking out ways to provide childcare that is substantial but not too costly.
 
More than 90 percent of those surveyed said they plan to hold their children's first birthday, which is usually marked in style in South Korea, in a simple, small-scale manner. Also many of those surveyed didn’t buy new baby items and instead got hand-me-downs or bought them on redistribution markets online.
 
The latest survey was carried out in the second half of last year on roughly 12-hundred pregnant women and parents who have children aged nine or under. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.