Anchor: South Korea ended an eight-year streak of declining births last year, with the number of newborns rising by around eight-thousand to exceed 238-thousand. Officials say the rebound mostly stems from the children of millennials and members of Generation Z, people born in the early to mid-1990s, tying the knot and starting families.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of babies born in 2024 increased for the first time in nine years, expanding eight-thousand-300, or three-point-six percent on-year, to 238-thousand-300.

The annual number of births, which stood at 438-thousand-420 in 2015, dropped to 406-thousand-243 in 2016 and continued to decline for eight years straight, falling below 300-thousand for the first time in 2020.

The total fertility rate, or the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime, was zero-point-75 last year, up zero-point-03, having posted an all-time low of zero-point-72 in 2023.

The rate still remains far below the average for member states in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD), which stood at one-point-51 in 2022, and Seoul’s policy target is to raise it to one by 2030.

Statistics Korea attributed the rise to the population structure and the increased number of marriages, more than to a significant policy effect or change in attitudes.

Officials said people born in the early to mid-1990s, when the annual number of births surpassed 700-thousand, are now thought to be in their prime years for marriage and childrearing, and couples who waited until after the pandemic to tie the knot are starting to have children.

Despite the increase in births, the population naturally declined for the fifth consecutive year, with deaths outnumbering births by 120-thousand-100 at 358-thousand-400.

In response to the data, You Hye-mi, senior presidential secretary for population policy, pledged to continue introducing effective, tested policies, while announcing plans to draw up a five-year master plan to tackle low births effective 2026.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.