
Rise in weddings, positive thoughts on marriage behind increase, statistics office says
South Korea's fertility rate rose by 0.03 in 2024, breaking a nine-year downtrend, according to Statistics Korea on Wednesday.
This came as the country has been suffering from a demographic crisis — a double whammy of a low birth rate and and increase in the elderly population — for nearly a decade.
According to the government's preliminary estimate, a South Korean woman on average gave birth to 0.75 babies in her lifetime in 2024, up from 0.72 in 2023. The birth rate in Asia's fourth-largest economy has been falling since 2015, when the figure was 1.24.
Statistics Korea attributes the improvement to the increase in the number of women in the childbearing age of early 30s, pent-up wedding demand following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and slight increases in the percent of Koreans who think positively about marriage and childbirth.
According to Statistics Korea's annual study on Korean society, released in November, 52.5 percent of Korean nationals across age groups said they were positive about marriage, up from 50 percent two years prior. Those willing to have kids rose to 68.4 percent in 2024, from 65.3 percent in 2022.
"Marriage and childbirth are increasingly considered desirable," said Park Hyun-jung, an official at Statistics Korea.
Despite the rebound, South Korea's birth rate will likely remain at the lowest level among 38 member nations of the Organization for the Economic Development and Cooperation, as 2022 estimates indicated South Korea was the only member country with a fertility rate lower than 1. According to the United Nations, 2.1 births per woman of childbearing age is a minimum requirement for a stable population, excluding other factors like immigration.
The number of newborns here also reached 238,343 in 2024, up 3.6 percent from the previous year. The figure saw the first uptick in nine years, as the number of newborns in 2015 rose 0.7 percent to 438,420 and had since gradually declined until 2023.
Among the newborns in 2024, 146,100 were first children and 75,900 were the second children of the families. Both figures rose by 5.6 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, compared to 2023.
Moreover, the number of marriages throughout last year rose 14.9 percent on-year to 222,422. It was the biggest on-year increase since 1970, when South Korea first began tracking the number of annual births.
The statistics also suggested that 35 percent of newborns in 2024 were born to parents who had been married for fewer than 2 years.
Coupled with these factors, more women in their 30s tended to give birth. Among those aged between 30 and 34, 70.4 out of 1,000 gave birth in 2024, while 46 out of 1,000 people aged 35 to 39 went through childbirth last year, according to Statistics Korea.

You Hye-mi, senior presidential secretary for population planning, told reporters Wednesday that the increase was due to the speedy implementation of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's policies to address demographic challenges.
In the first press briefing at the presidential office since Yoon's botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3, You said births of second and third children both began to increase in the fourth quarter of 2024, signaling that the increase could continue.
About 95 percent of newborns were born to married couples, indicating that the increase in the birth correlates with the rise in the number of marriages in South Korea, which is also rising.
The government's consistency in providing a range of policy support "has led the young generation to decide to have children," according to You. She referred to loans and housing support for newlywed couples and new parents, as well as benefits for companies that adopt family-friendly policies by encouraging workers to use parental leave.
In addition, Seoul's statistics authorities will announce the birth rate and the newborns' birth order more frequently — on a monthly basis — beginning this year. This will allow the country to keep track of the efficacy of the government's policy to boost the birth rate more timely and precise manner, You said.
Estimates related to the birth rate had been announced on a quarterly basis until the end of 2024.
consnow@heraldcorp.com