Births in Korea decline on-year in June after two-month uptick

The number of births in Korea saw an on-year decline in June, ending two consecutive months of yearly rebounds.

Visitors look around child care products displayed at the Incheon Baby & Kids Fair held in Incheon on Aug. 25. [NEWS1]

The number of births in Korea saw an on-year decline in June, ending two consecutive months of yearly rebounds.

However, the quarterly figure for the April-June period took an upturn for the first time in more than eight years, partly due to a post-pandemic surge in marriages.

Data from Statistics Korea showed Wednesday that the number of newborns in June decreased 1.8 percent on year to 18,242. The on-year decline followed a 2.7 percent increase in May and a 2.8 percent increase in April, which broke an 18-month downward streak.

The June figure is the lowest ever recorded for the month.

This brings the total number of births in the second quarter to 56,838, up 1.2 percent from the same period last year. The quarterly uptick marked the first yearly rebound since the fourth quarter of 2015.

The statistics agency has cited the post-pandemic rebound in marriages in the latter half of 2022 and the first half of last year for the recent uptrend.

As a result, the total fertility rate — the average number of children expected to be born per woman over her lifetime — came at 0.71 per woman in the second quarter, unchanged from the same period a year earlier. In the first quarter, the fertility rate fell below the 0.8 mark for the first time to 0.76, down by 0.06 from last year.

Statistics Korea previously expected this year's fertility rate to be a record low of 0.68. However, an official from the statistics agency noted that the recent uptick may continue for the remainder of the year, saying that “we will need to monitor the situation whether the trend would persist.”

In June, deaths rose 0.5 percent to 26,942, resulting in a net population decline of 8,700. Korea's population has been shrinking for 56 consecutive months.

By administrative region, six including Seoul and Incheon saw an on-year increase in births, while the figure declined in Busan, Daegu and nine others.

Meanwhile, the statistics agency also released finalized yearly population data for last year on Wednesday, which showed that Korea saw a 7.7 percent decline in births to 230,000, a fresh low.

Notably, the percentage of babies born outside legally married couples soared to a new high of 4.7 percent, compared to 3.9 percent last year and 2.9 percent in 2022.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]