South Korea’s birthrate increases for the first time in nine years.

Last year, South Korea experienced an increase in its birthrate for the first time in nine years, fueled by a rise in marriages, which has created optimism that the nation might be overcoming its demographic crisis.  Initial data published by Statistics Korea on Wednesday indicated that the birth rate per 1,000 individuals in 2024 reached 4.7, marking the first increase since 2014.

According to the data, South Korea’s fertility rate—representing the average number of children a woman is anticipated to bear throughout her lifetime—was 0.75, an increase of 0.03 from 0.72 in 2023. Last year, there were 238,300 births, which marked an increase of 8,300, or 3.6%. Amid a prolonged political crisis, government efforts to encourage more young individuals to marry and procreate seem to have yielded a positive, albeit limited, impact.

South Korea boasts one of the highest life expectancies globally and has the lowest birth rate, a mix that experts have cautioned could result in population instability and endanger its position as a regional economic force.

The increase in the birthrate originated from an extremely low level and stays significantly under the 2.1 births per woman required to maintain population stability without extensive immigration.

Since 2018, South Korea has remained the sole OECD nation with a rate below 1.0 – a target the government aims to reach by 2030. However, it has faced challenges in addressing the issues that experts link to the hesitancy towards larger families, such as the high expenses of living and education, a competitive job market, and increasing resistance among women to conventional gender roles.

In reaction, the conservative government of ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol has allocated billions of dollars towards initiatives to halt the downturn, such as financial support for newlyweds and increased childcare aid. Yoon, whose destiny now rests with the constitutional court after his brief announcement of martial law in December, has labeled the declining birthrate as a “national crisis” and stated his intention to establish a new ministry to tackle it.

Park Hyun-jung, a representative from Statistics Korea, mentioned that the increase in marriage numbers observed following the removal of Covid-19 restrictions has persisted. The count of marriages – viewed as a dependable sign of anticipated births in a nation where few children are born outside of marriage – surged 14.9% last year, marking the largest increase since the data was initially published in 1970.

“There was a change in social values, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth,” Park told a briefing, adding that a rise in the number of people in their early 30s had also been a factor.

“It is difficult to measure how much each factor contributed to the rise in new births, but they themselves had an impact on each other too,” she said.