Analysis of 560,000 Civil Complaint Cases Proposes Policy Improvement Directions for Handling Low Birth Rate Issue

- Results of collaborative project between the ACRC and The POSTECH Institute for Social Data Science released on Feb. 3rd

- Confirmed that the low birth rate is interconnected with various policy areas across overall daily lives of the people

- Proposed the need for integrated policy design encompassing life cycles and

policy domains

(Feb. 3, 2026, ACRC)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) announced the results of the collaborative project with the POSTECH Institute for Social Data Science titled “Research on Policy Demand Analysis and Improvement Measures Based on Public Complaints on the Low Birth Rates” on Feb. 3.

The Commission has pursued collaborative projects with the Institute after signing an MOU in 2020, by focusing on addressing social issues through analysis and utilization of big data on public complaints, research on data analysis techniques, and information exchange.

※ Conducted studies on “Analysis on Public Complaints Big Data to Strengthen Consumer Protection Policies for Online Commerce”(2024) and“Identifying the Hardships of the Youth in Rural Areas of Korea through Complaint Analysis” (2023)

The study compared and analyzed approximately 560,000 “Public Complaints Data on low birth rate*” received from 2021 to 2024 with the key policies by life cycle** included in the “Fourth Basic Plan for Low Birthrate and Aging Society.” It aimed to diagnose the effectiveness and public perception of the policies targeting low birthrate and propose directions for policy improvement.

* Took pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and education as keywords to identify complaints that are

relevant to low birth rates

** Stages of life cycle: Pregnancy/Childbirth, Infancy/Early Childhood, Childhood/Adolescence, and

Entire Life Cycle

Analysis tells that relevant complaints were most concentrated during the childhood/adolescence stage. By policy area, complaints were from a wide range of fields from childcare/education, employment/labor, health/medical care, and culture, demonstrating that the diverse policy areas and all aspects of people’s lives are closely connected to the low birthrate issue.

When considering both life cycle and policy areas, in particular, it turned out that following areas consistently require improvement: healthcare/medical fields linked with pregnancy and childbirth phase, such as infertility and sub-fertility support and delivery infrastructure; childcare field linked with infancy and early childhood phase such as human resource allocation and safety management of childcare centers; education field linked with childhood and adolescence phase such as school food service, after-school programs, and childcare classrooms. At the same time, continuous improvement demands were evident in the employment and labor environment throughout the entire life cycle, for instance working hours, organizational culture, and childcare leave systems.

Based on these findings, the team suggested that the integrated policy design that encompasses both the life cycle and policy areas is required to address the low birthrate issue as it is difficult to resolve it by caring for a single life stage or improving respective policy.

The ACRC plans to share the findings with relevant agencies to facilitate policy utilization, ensuring citizens' voices to be incorporated into low birthrate policies.

Director General Kim Ki Sun of the Institutional Improvement Bureau under the ACRC stated, “This study serves as an example of policy review based on citizens' voices. We expect it to be utilized as important reference material for enhancing the effectiveness of upcoming policies on addressing low birthrate.”