South Koreans feel burdened by the cost of child care and tend to believe being a parent limits their career chances, a study showed Wednesday.

The results show that the high cost of education and poor work-life balance of young parents were among the reasons behind the nation’s low fertility rate, the researcher said.

The study, organized by Kim Mee-sook at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, analyzed how parents in nine different countries viewed parenthood in 2012. 

The 18,063 participants were asked to rate their agreement on a scale of 1 to 5 -- 1 being the least and 5 being the most -- on a total of six statements on parenthood, on top of a number of basic questions.

The countries surveyed were Sweden, South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, China, France, the U.K. and Germany.

Among the countries, Korea had the lowest fertility rate in 2011 after Taiwan, marking 1.24 births per woman. Ironically, Koreans wanted the largest number of kids among the nine countries, claiming it would be ideal for a household to have an average of 2.72 children.

Koreans also marked 4.26 out of 5 on a statement that said “watching children grow up is life’s greatest joy,” which was lower than the average of the nine countries, which was 4.34. Also, it was Koreans who most strongly felt being a parent required sacrificing one’s personal freedom, rating 3.3 out of 5. The average of the nine nations was 2.84.

Korean parents also rated higher than the average on statements that said “children are a financial burden to their parents” and “having children restricts the employment and career chances of one or both parents.”

Kim said the results showed that Koreans chose not to have children not because they don’t want them, but because they feel there isn’t enough support for child care.

“There should be more welfare programs for child care,” she said. “Programs that ensure parents’ leisure time also seem to be necessary.”

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)