A South Korean City Plays Matchmaker to Tackle a Fertility Crisis
Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin’s city-run dating events are the the flashy centerpiece of a broader strategy to address low birth rates.
Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin wears a sample of the name tags donned at his city’s matchmaking events during the Bloomberg CityLab conference in Mexico City.
Photographer: Alejandro Cegarra/BloombergTwo couples who tied the knot this year in Seongnam, South Korea, have the city to thank: The pairs are the first to marry after meeting at mass blind-dating events hosted by the government to help boost the country’s falling birth rate.
Called Solomon’s Choice (a play on the words solo and man), the program gathered more than 400 young singles across five rounds of events last year, with Mayor Shin Sang-jin playing matchmaker at times. “Solomon’s Choice is centered around creating opportunities for young people to meet,” Shin said at the Bloomberg CityLab 2024 conference in Mexico City, organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies with the Aspen Institute.