Seoul: The number of babies born rose at a record high pace in February of this year, driven largely by an increase in childbirths by women in their 30s, government data showed Wednesday. A total of 22,898 babies were born during the month, marking a significant 13.6 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to findings by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the figure was the highest for the month since 2019, when 25,710 babies were born. The growth pace was also the highest for any February since record keeping began in 1981, the ministry noted. The number of newborns has been on an upward trend since July 2024.
The country's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, rose 0.1 from a year earlier to 0.93 in February. The ministry indicated that the recent rise in births was mainly led by women in their 30s. Specifically, the number of births per 1,000 women in their early 30s rose by 9.1 to 86.1, while the corresponding tally for women in their late 30s increased by 9.2 to 61.5. In contrast, the number of births per 1,000 women in their late 20s only rose by 1.6 to 23.9.
In other demographic shifts, the number of marriages in February declined 4.2 percent on-year to 18,557. This decline followed 22 consecutive months of increase and was attributed to the fewer number of working days due to the extended Lunar New Year holiday. Meanwhile, the number of divorces decreased significantly by 15.6 percent on-year to 6,197 in the cited month.
Additionally, the number of deaths dropped by 3.5 percent from a year earlier to 29,172, leading to a natural population decline of 6,275.