SEOUL, March 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births grew for the 19th straight month amid higher marriages, statistical ministry data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies jumped 11.7 percent from a year earlier to 26,916 in January, continuing to go up since July 2024, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
It marked a seven-year high for the month of January, the highest since 2019.
The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during her life, added 0.10 to 0.99 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 soared 12.4 percent to 22,640 in January on a yearly basis, while the number of divorces rose 4.2 percent to 7,208.
The number of deaths dropped 17.6 percent to 32,454 in January compared to the same month of last year.
Affected by the still high deaths and low births, the natural population decline stood at 5,539 in the cited month. ■
