Seoul: The number of babies born in South Korea surged nearly 20% in March, reaching a seven-year high, according to government data released on Wednesday. This increase is attributed to a higher number of marriages, as reported by the country's Ministry of Data and Statistics.
According to Emirates News Agency, a total of 25,200 babies were born in March, marking a 19.4% increase from the same month last year. This figure is the highest recorded since March 2019, when 27,049 births were documented. The trend of rising birth rates has been observed since July 2024.
In the first quarter of the year, from January to March, the total number of births reached 75,013, representing a 14.8% increase compared to the previous year. This is also the highest first-quarter figure since 2019. Despite this rise, the country's total fertility rate, which is the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, increased by 0.15 to 0.93 in March. However, this rate remains below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.
The number of marriages in March rose by 10.1% from the previous year, totaling 21,112. This upward trend in marriages had been consistent for 22 consecutive months until a decline was observed in February, attributed to fewer working days during the extended Lunar New Year holiday. The March marriage figure is the highest since 2018, when 22,773 marriages were recorded.
Conversely, the number of divorces also saw an increase, rising by 9.4% to 7,884. The data further revealed that the number of deaths increased by 1.3% from a year earlier, totaling 31,423 in March. This resulted in a natural population decline of 6,224.