Fertility rate rises in South Korea for first time in nine years

By CathNews New Zealand

March 4th, 2025

CNS/Vatican Media

Young South Koreans cheer after Pope Francis announces that the next World Youth Day will take place in 2027 in Seoul. The Pope made the announcement after the closing Mass for World Youth Day at Tejo Park in Lisbon, Portugal, in August, 2023

After nearly a decade of declining birth statistics, the number of newborns per year in South Korea has increased. Source: Fides.

According to data from the Korea Institute of Statistics, there were 238,000 births last year, up by 8300 over the number for 2023. This was the first increase in the number of births in South Korea in a year since 2015.

The fertility rate, the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime, rose from 0.75 to 0.79. But this is well below the OECD average of 1.5, and well below the “replacement rate” average of 2.1 births per woman.

The South Korea fertility rate has fallen to the lowest in the world over the past decade. Economists say that the demographic crisis has become the biggest risk to the growth of Asia’s fourth-largest economy and to its social security system.

It is predicted South Korea’s population of 51 million could halve by the end of the century if the trend is not reversed.

The Korea Institute of Statistics said the latest increase in births is likely down to an increase in the population in the fertile age group, an increase in marriages that have been delayed by the pandemic and also the beginning of a “cultural” shift in young people’s values about marriage.

Government, business and cultural initiatives have been launched to try to improve the number of births.

Father Oh Seok-jun, head of the Seoul Archdiocese Committee for Life, urged people not to view the low birth rate as “just a matter of numbers”, nor as a phenomenon that can be tackled with reproductive technologies, as some claim.

It is necessary to “look at the issue from a spiritual and hopeful point of view”, he said.

“A child is a gift of grace granted by the Lord through the perfect union of love between a man and a woman. This is why the Catholic Church, in its pastoral care with young people and couples, invites them to look to the future with hope,” he said.

Yeokchon-dong parish in Seoul Archdiocese recently held a blessing ceremony for families with three or more children.

More than 35 per cent of households in Korea are single-person dwellings.

FULL STORY

ASIA/SOUTH KOREA – Fertility rate reverses trend: Church community works to restore hope – Agenzia Fides (Fides)

Replacement level fertility and future population growth – PubMed (PubMed)