The number of births in South Korea increased for the second consecutive month in August, offering a small but encouraging sign for the country with the world’s lowest birth rate.
Last year, the nation’s fertility rate—measuring the number of expected births per woman—dropped to 0.72. President Yoon Suk Yeol has called the declining birth rate a “national emergency,” with concerns that prevailing demographic trends could negatively impact the economy.
Despite over $200 billion in government spending on initiatives such as child care and cash subsidies, these efforts have yet to reverse the trajectory.
A couple prepare for their performance at a mass wedding ceremony on February 7, 2020, in Gapyeong, South Korea. Marriages were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in turn affecting the birth rate.
A couple prepare for their performance at a mass wedding ceremony on February 7, 2020, in Gapyeong, South Korea. Marriages were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in turn affecting the birth rate.
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
According to a report from South Korea‘s statistics agency, 20,098 babies were born in August, marking a 5.9 percent increase compared with the same month last year. It was also the second consecutive month to see over 1,000 additional births, with the largest increase for August since 2012, when births rose by 6.1 percent.
From January to August 2024, a total of 158,011 births were recorded, a 0.4 percent drop from the same period in 2023. However, the agency cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor in the uptick, noting that many couples had delayed marriage until 2022, which in turn postponed births.
Newsweek emailed a request for comment to the South Korean embassy in the U.S.
Statistics Korea anticipated the birth increase may continue for a few more months.
“There is also a base effect of the low number of births last year, so there is a possibility that the increase in the number of births will continue until the end of the year,” local media cited the agency as saying. If the upward trend holds, 2024 could mark the first net rise in births since 2015.
Despite these developments, it remains to be seen whether these trends will continue over the long term.
Cultural shifts and rising housing prices, especially in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, have led many millennials and Gen Z South Koreans to delay or avoid starting families. The central and local governments have introduced numerous policies to support child-rearing, but these efforts have not yet delivered significant long-term results.
In response to the crisis, the government is establishing a new ministry to address demographic issues. Newly released data also shows 20 percent year-over-year increase in marriages, while divorces dropped by 5.5 percent.
Deaths rose by 32,244, a 5.6 percent increase that is not unexpected as South Korea nears the point of being a super-aged society, further compounding its demographic woes.