Data on Wednesday showed that the number of babies born in September in South Korea rose by the largest margin in nearly 14 years, as the country struggles to address the severe demographic changes of a very low birth rate and rapid aging. doing.
A total of 20,590 babies were born in September, up 10.1 percent or 1,884 newborns from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea, Yonhap news agency said.
This is the largest annual increase since January 2011, when the number of births increased by 10.8 percent.
“The increase is due to more couples holding weddings from the second half of 2022 to the first half of 2023 after delaying their weddings during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Im Young-il, an agency official, told a press conference. Credit is given.” Briefing.
A total of 61,288 babies were born in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 8 percent from the same period last year, the agency said. The reading also marks the largest quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2012.
The total fertility rate, which reflects the average number of births expected over a woman’s lifetime, fell to 0.76 in the third quarter. For the January-September period this rate came down to 0.74.
The nine-month figure is higher than the 0.72 recorded for the full year of 2023, which is the lowest level since 1970.
“It is very likely that the total fertility rate for the whole of 2024 could remain above 0.72 and even reach around 0.74 if the current trend continues in the fourth quarter,” Young-il said.
“However, it is too early to say that this figure has rebounded as it is still very low compared to other countries.”
This figure is well below the 2.1 births per woman required to maintain a stable population without immigration.
South Korea is struggling with a steady decline in its birth rate, as increasing numbers of young people are choosing to delay or avoid marriage and parenthood.
To encourage marriage and improve fertility rates, the government has introduced various marriage benefits and child care assistance.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths rose 3.8 percent year-on-year to 29,362 in September.
Accordingly, South Korea recorded a natural population decline of 8,772 in the month.
The number of deaths has been exceeding the number of newborns since the fourth quarter of 2019.
The report also showed that the number of couples getting married in September rose 18.8 percent year-on-year to 15,368, the largest year-on-year increase in history.
According to the data, the number of couples getting divorced increased by 0.4 percent year-on-year to 7,531.
–IANS
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