SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births grew for the 15th successive month amid higher marriages, statistical ministry data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies gained 8.6 percent from a year earlier to 22,369 in September, continuing to go up since July 2024, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during her life, added 0.06 to 0.85 in the cited month, but it stayed far below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman to maintain a stable population.
The number of marriages spiked 20.1 percent to 18,462 in September on a yearly basis, while the number of divorces increased 5.7 percent to 7,959.
Concerns remained about the younger generation who delayed or gave up on having children owing to economic difficulties such as high housing prices, high education costs and stubborn youth unemployment.
The still low birth rate fueled worry about a demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp fall in the heads of households eventually leading to a consumption cliff.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths reduced 3.9 percent to 28,101 in September compared to the same month of last year.
Affected by the still high deaths and low births, the natural population decline came to 5,732 in the cited month. ■
