The central and local governments will expand the eligibility for benefits given to households with multiple children as the nation faces a globally low birth rate crisis.

The education ministry said the government decided to change the criteria for a “multi-children household” from a family with three or more children to a household with two or more children during a related meeting on Wednesday.

The decision is in line with policy tasks that the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy unveiled earlier in March. 

As such, the land ministry plans to grant by the end of the year priority in public housing rental programs for families with two children. Currently, such benefit on apply to families with three children or more. 

The interior and safety ministry plans to provide exemptions or reductions in vehicle acquisition taxes to houses with two children while the culture ministry will allow discounts in costs to use cultural facilities for such-structured families.

Local governments, on their part, plan to provide support in education costs to families with two or more children. Such support is currently granted to the third-born child and their younger siblings in a family with multiple children. 

The latest steps come as the government is trying to encourage births as South Korea ranks at the very bottom in terms of birth rates among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.