No. of newborns in Korea rises for first time in 19 months

[Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

The number of newborns in South Korea rose for the first time in 19 months in April, data showed Wednesday.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of babies born in April was 19,049, up 2.8 percent from the same month a year ago.

This is the first year-on-year increase in births since September 2022.

The number of births in April has been declining from 23,299 in 2020 to 22,703 in 2021, and 21,164 in 2022 before dipping to 18,528 in 2023.

The increase is attributed to the base effect of previously low birth rates. The number of marriages also rose from August 2022 to the first half of last year.

“Given that it takes about two years from August 2022, it is highly likely that the number of births will increase from August to October,” said Lim Young-il, director of the population census division at Statistics Korea. “The figure may rise in the second half of the year.”

The cumulative number of births until April this year, however, was 79,523, the lowest on record, due to the declining trend from January to March this year, data showed.

The number of marriages, in the meantime, also rose to a record high in April this year due to a base effect from last year’s record low number of marriages and the fact that there was one more weekday available for marriage registration this year. There were 18,039 marriages in April, up 24.6 percent from last year.