Childbirth in South Korea rises; pace highest in 15 years

The pace of growth was highest since 2010, second consecutive year of growth.

A total of 254,500 babies were born last year, up 6.8 per cent, or 16,100, from 2024, according to the provisional data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The ministry will announce the final statistics in August, as per Yonhap.

The total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, came to 0.8, up 0.05 from a year earlier, recovering the threshold for the first time in four years.

The ministry attributed the rebound in the number of newborns to an increase in marriages and the continued growth in the population of women in their early 30s, the prime childbearing age group, since 2021, as per Yonhap.

"The number of marriages gained ground for 21 straight months from April 2024 to December last year as couples who had delayed their marriages due to the COVID-19 pandemic tied the knot," Park Hyun-jeong, a ministry official, told Yonhap.

Park also said there was a notable change in social perception toward childbirth, with the ministry's latest biennial survey in 2024 showing an increase in people with intention to have children after marriage from two years earlier.

The proportion of people who are willing to give birth outside of marriage also went up, she added.

Park projected the figure to stay above the 0.8 level this year and further rise to the 1 mark in 2031. Data also showed that the number of deaths added 1.3 percent on-year to 363,400 in 2025, resulting in a natural population decline of 110,000, as per Yonhap.

Earlier on January 28, Yonhap reported the highest pace in the rise of births in 18 years between January-November 2025.

A total of 233,708 babies were born between January-November in 2025, up 6.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Statistics. It marks the steepest on-year increase since 2007, as per Yonhap. (ANI)