South Korea recorded its highest improve in births in almost 14 years, in keeping with official knowledge launched Wednesday, because the nation struggles with a demographic disaster. File Pool Photograph by Yonhap/EPA-EFE
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (UPI) — South Korea’s start price confirmed its largest month-to-month achieve in almost 14 years, its statistics company mentioned Wednesday, providing a uncommon optimistic signal amid longstanding demographic considerations over a shrinking and quickly getting old inhabitants.
Some 20,590 infants have been born in September, in keeping with knowledge from Statistics Korea, up 1,884 newborns — or 10.1% — from the identical interval final yr. The one-year improve was the biggest since January 2011.
September marked the third straight month through which greater than 20,000 infants have been born, with 20,601 in July and 20,098 in August. Complete births within the third quarter have been up 8% from the identical interval final yr, the company mentioned, marking the biggest quarterly improve for the reason that third quarter of 2012.
Officers have pointed to a soar in marriages after the COVID-19 pandemic as the important thing driver within the latest start price increase.
The nation might even see its first annual rise in general fertility price since 2015, in keeping with a projection by South Korea’s Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Inhabitants Coverage.
“Just lately, the variety of marriages has elevated for 5 consecutive months and the variety of births has elevated for 2 consecutive months,” Joo Hyung-hwan, vice chairman of the committee, mentioned in a speech on the Symposium on Ageing and Low Birthrate in Seoul on Tuesday.
“If this pattern continues, the entire fertility price is predicted to rebound to round 0.74 this yr,” Joo mentioned.
South Korea completed 2023 at a record-low price of 0.72 — which means that for each 100 ladies, simply 72 infants are anticipated to be born over their lifetimes.
That mark was by far the bottom on this planet, lower than half the common price of the 38 members of the Group for Financial Cooperation and Growth.
A fertility price of two.1 is taken into account the extent wanted to maintain a inhabitants from declining.
Plenty of components, together with excessive housing and training prices and gender inequality within the office, have made younger individuals in South Korea reluctant to begin households.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has referred to as the low start price a “nationwide emergency” and introduced plans in Might to determine a brand new ministry to handle it.
The federal government has tried varied incentives to assist entice households to have kids, together with a money allowance for newborns that was raised to roughly $750 monthly initially of the yr.
South Korea’s presidential committee on inhabitants coverage unveiled extra steps final month to boost work-life steadiness, together with elevated parental depart and tax incentives for small companies to supply family-friendly work cultures.
Regardless of the uptick in births, nevertheless, the specter of a demographic disaster continues to loom.
Statistics Korea has projected that the nation’s inhabitants will decline from almost 52 million in 2024 to 36 million in 2072. On the similar time, the proportion of the aged inhabitants in South Korea will rise from lower than 20% in 2024 to almost half in 2072.