Korea sees biggest on-year increase in number of births in 15 years in 2025
Published: 25 Feb. 2026, 17:29
Updated: 25 Feb. 2026, 18:25
![A baby is tended to by a nurse at a hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi on Nov. 26, 2025. [YONHAP]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/02/25/3fa506e1-7c82-4c35-9a43-53a7edb97294.jpg)
A baby is tended to by a nurse at a hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi on Nov. 26, 2025. [YONHAP]
Korea may not perish after all. Births in Korea posted their biggest on-year increase in 15 years in 2025 due to the number of marriages and childbirths rebounding after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Korea’s baby count jumped 6.8 percent in 2025 — with older mothers doing most of the heavy lifting — as postponed pandemic-era marriages resulted in births. The government is even setting its sights on pushing the total fertility rate (TFR), the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, back up to 1 by 2030.
This increase of 6.8 percent was the fourth-highest since the government first began compiling such data in 1970. Analysts cited a postpandemic rise in marriages; a larger population of people in their early 30s, the prime childbearing age group; and more positive perceptions of child-rearing.
The number of babies born in 2025 came to 254,500, up 16,100 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics’ population trends survey released on Wednesday. That increase was the largest since 2010, when births rose by 25,000.
![A baby is picked up by a nurse at a hospital in western Seoul on May 28, 2025. [NEWS1]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/02/25/c16d2509-c88e-4aed-a90e-0d8a79bb9ead.jpg)
A baby is picked up by a nurse at a hospital in western Seoul on May 28, 2025. [NEWS1]
The TFR rose to 0.8 in 2025, up 0.05 from the previous year. After declining for eight consecutive years from 2016, it shifted upward in 2024.
The average age of mothers at childbirth also rose to 33.8, up 0.2 years compared to the previous year, and births increased across all age groups from the late 20s upward.
In particular, the share of births to mothers 35 or older rose 1.4 percentage points to 37.3 percent, a record high. That means more than three out of every 10 babies born in 2025 had a mother aged 35 or older.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to step back from work, but I always thought I would have a child if I got married,” said 40-year-old Kang, who had her first baby last year and is now on parental leave.
“Because I have many friends who gave birth in their late 30s, I wasn’t afraid of being an older mother. The fact that my husband can take parental leave for up to three years also played a big role in my decision to have a baby.”
Some forecasts suggest births may continue to rise for the time being, given the broader increase in marriages. The number of marriages nationwide in 2025 was about 240,000, up 8.1 percent from the previous year. It marked a third straight annual increase, following a 1 percent rise in 2023 and a 14.8 percent jump in 2024.
![[MINISTRY OF DATA AND STATISTICS]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/02/25/0419aa60-4052-4a4f-9c81-0a516937e415.jpg)
[MINISTRY OF DATA AND STATISTICS]
“Because the increase in marriages has accumulated over three years, we can expect births to rise as well,” said Park Hyun-jung, the head of the population trend division at the Ministry of Data and Statistics. “But we will have to watch how things unfold.”
Still, Korea’s fertility remains the lowest among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members. In 2023, the OECD average TFR was 1.43, while Korea posted 0.72 — the only member country below 1.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths in 2025 came to 363,400, up 4,800, or 1.3 percent, from a year earlier. Deaths have continued to outnumber births for years, extending the trend of natural population decline.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM KYUNG-HEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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