(123rf)
South Korea in September saw the largest on-year increase in the monthly number of childbirths in nearly 14 years, government data showed Wednesday.
According to Statistics Korea, 20,590 babies were born in September, which was 1,884 more than the same month in 2023. The on-year increase was the largest since January 2011 percentage-wise, and the most since March of 2015 in terms of the number of babies born.
It was the third straight month in which 20,000 or more babies were born, with 20,601 in July and 20,098 in August. Births in the third quarter marked 61,289, up 4,523 compared to the third quarter of last year.
The quarterly childbirths recorded the largest on-year increase since the end of 2021.
With the increase, the country's total fertility rate rose for the first time since 2015 to 0.76. Last year's total fertility rate was 0.71 in September and marked 0.72 at the end of the year.
The total fertility rate is the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime.
South Korea has been suffering from chronic low childbirth issues for years, as the total fertility rate has been on the downward trend since 1.48 in 2000. The faltering fertility rate has been more pronounced in recent years, decreasing every year from 1.24 in 2015 to 0.72 in 2023.
The projected figure for this year still make South Korea's total fertility rate about half of the OECD average of 1.51 and lowest among its member nations, but it is a far better outlook than the one initially expected by the authorities. Statistics Korea in 2023 projected this year's total fertility rate to be around 0.68.
Officials believe that the recent increase in marriages is linked to the rebound in childbirth. There were about 194,000 marriages in 2023, up 2,000 from the previous year.
Im Young-il, an official from Statistics Korea, said that the recent increase appears to be attributed to more couples holding weddings between second half of 2022 and first half of 2023 after putting them off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If the current trends stay the course until the fourth quarter, the total fertility rate (for 2024) may hover above 0.72," he said in a press briefing. "Despite the rebound in total fertility rate, however, it is still significantly lower than other countries."
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