South Korea: Births up 15.6 per cent in June, extend gains for 24th month

South Korea recorded a 15.6 per cent year-on-year rise in births in June, the highest growth since records began in 1981. Births have increased for 24 consecutive months, driven by recovering marriages and improved attitudes toward having children, though fertility remains low

Seoul: The number of babies born in South Korea rose 15.6 per cent in June from a year earlier, marking the 24th consecutive month of on-year growth, government data showed Wednesday.

A total of 23,111 babies were born in June, up 3,115 from 19,996 a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The growth rate was the highest since the government began compiling relevant data in 1981. The increase in absolute terms was also the largest since 1992, when the figure rose by 3,666, Yonhap News Agency reported.

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The country’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, rose 0.11 point from a year earlier to 0.88 in June. The fertility rate remains well below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration. The number of births has maintained an upward trend since July 2024.

Experts attribute the recent growth to an increase in the number of marriages, coupled with increasingly positive perceptions of having children. “The increase in births came as the number of marriages has been recovering since May 2023 following the end of the pandemic, with an increase in the number of women in their 30s,” an official from the data ministry said.

The official noted as births tended to be higher in the second half of the year in 2024 and 2025, the annual rate could reach 0.9 this year, although the country still needs to take a wait-and-see approach.

Over the January-June period, a total of 145,804 babies were born, up 15.4 per cent from a year earlier. The figure was the highest since 2019, while both the increase in number and the growth rate were the largest on record.

The number of marriages in June jumped 14 per cent from a year earlier to 21,075. The number of divorces, meanwhile, rose 13.5 per cent on-year to 7,688. The data showed the number of deaths increased 2 per cent from a year earlier to 27,794, resulting in a natural population decline of 4,683.