SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births grew for the 17th successive month amid higher marriages, statistical ministry data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies gained 3.1 percent from a year earlier to 20,710 in November 2025, 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 life, added 0.02 to 0.79 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 climbed 2.7 percent to 19,079 in November on a yearly basis, while the number of divorces dipped 9.8 percent to 6,890.
The number of deaths expanded 4.9 percent to 30,678 in November compared to the same month of 2024.
Affected by higher deaths and still-low births, the natural population decline stood at 9,968 in the cited month. ■
