SEOUL - South Korea's birth rate rose last year for the first time in a decade, official data showed on Wednesday, bucking a trend for a country battling a demographic crisis.
The crude birth rate - the number of babies being born per 1,000 people -- was 4.7, the data said, up for the first time since 2014.
And the fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, was 0.75, the data said, "up 0.03 from 0.72 in 2023," according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea.
"The number of births in 2024 was 238,300, an increase of 8,300 (3.6 per cent) from the previous year," they added.
South Korea has one of the world's longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates, a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge.
Seoul has poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children in order to maintain population stability. - AFP