April births see highest rise in 34 years

The number of babies born in Korea rose at the fastest pace in 34 years in April from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday, driven by a rise in marriages and demographic changes. A total of 20,717 babies were born in April, up 8.7 percent from 19,059 babies born a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the steepest on-year increase in monthly births since April 1991, when the figure also rose by 8.7 percent. It was also the first time in three years that the number of monthly births surpassed the 20,000 mark after hitting 21,164 in April 2022. The country's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, also rose by 0.06 from a year earlier to 0.79 in April. "The rise in births appears to be influenced by increased marriages since last year, growth in the population of women in their early 30s, and various birth promotion policies by the central and local governments," an official at Statistics Korea said. In South Korea, where childbirth outside of marriage remains rare, an increase in marriages tendsWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times