Childbirths in South Korea increased in April from a year earlier, turning around from the previous month's downturn amid worries over the country's chronically low birthrate, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, the number of babies born in April came to about 37,400, up 1.9 percent or 700 from the same month a year earlier.

This followed a 0.8 percent fall in March. Childbirths in South Korea had declined for 13 straight months before February when they grew 0.8 percent on-year.

The report comes as South Korea has been pushing to raise the birthrate as its decline could shrink the overall working population, increase welfare expenses and undercut the country's growth potential.

The report also showed that about 23,800 couples got married in April, down 2.5 percent or 600 from a year earlier.

Divorces increased 4.3 percent on-year to 9,600 in April, while the number of deaths came to 21,800, down 2.2 percent from a year earlier.

In a separate report, the agency said that the number of people changing their residence in May inched down 0.1 percent on-year to about 610,000. (Yonhap)