South Korea’s fertility rate increased in 2024 for the first time in nine years, fuelled by a spike in weddings, preliminary statistics revealed on Wednesday.
According to Statistics Korea, the country’s fertility rate (the average number of infants a woman is projected to have over her reproductive life) was 0.75 in 2024.
In 2023, the birth-rate plummeted for the ninth straight year to 0.72, the lowest in the world, from 1.24 in 2015, raising concerns about the economic shock to society caused by such a quick rate.
Since 2018, South Korea has been the only member of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) with a rate below one.
South Korea has implemented a number of initiatives to encourage young people to marry and have children.
Impeached President Yoon Suk-Yeol declared a “national demographic crisis” and announced plans to establish a new ministry to address low birth rates.
There has been a change in social value, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth.
Marriages, a leading indicator of new births, jumped 14.9 per cent in 2024, the biggest spike since the data started being released in 1970.
Marriages turned up for the first time in 11 years in 2023 with a one per cent increase powered by a post-pandemic boost.
In the Asian country, there is a high correlation between marriages and births, with a time lag of one or two years, as marriage is often seen as a prerequisite to having children.
Across the country, the birth-rate last year was the lowest in the capital, Seoul, at 0.58.
The latest data showed there were 120,000 more people who died last year than those who were newly born, marking the fifth consecutive year of the population naturally shrinking.
The administrative city of Sejong was the only major centre where population grew.
South Korea’s population, which hit a peak of 51.83 million in 2020, is expected to shrink to 36.22 million by 2072, according to the latest projection by the statistics agency.
