Births up 13% in August to mark 26th straight month of increase

The number of babies born in Korea shot up 13 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the 26th consecutive month of increase, government data showed on Wednesday.

A total of 23,703 babies were born in August, up from 20,983 a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. This marked the highest figure for any August since 2019, when 24,371 newborns were recorded.

The country’s total fertility rate, or the average number of children that a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, rose by 0.09 from a year earlier to 0.87 in August. The rate remains well below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.

The number of births has been on an upward trajectory since July 2024.

Over the January-to-August period, 193,783 babies were born, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier. This was also the highest figure for the period since 2019.

The recent rebound comes as the country sees more marriages, a growing population of people in their 30s and more positive attitudes toward having children.

The number of marriages in August fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 19,218. That of divorces rose 4.4 percent to 7,510.

The number of deaths, meanwhile, increased 4.9 percent from a year earlier to 30,308, resulting in a natural population decline of 6,605, the latest findings showed.

Yonhap