A ray of hope pierces South Korea’s demographic gloom as 2025 births leaped higher than any year in 15, lifting the fertility rate to 0.8 after four flat years. Weddings, long stalled by COVID, are the catalyst.
254,500 babies mean 16,100 more than 2024—a 6.8% surge—echoing 2010’s rare uptick, says the Ministry of Data and Statistics. August brings confirmatory numbers.
Continuous 21-month marriage growth from April 2024 onward, plus expanding 30+ women cohorts since 2021, explain the boom. Fertility metrics rose 0.05 to 0.8, the four-year peak increase.
Attitudes are changing too: 2024 polls show heightened desires for kids post-wedding over prior readings, with non-traditional births also up.
Forecasts predict surpassing 0.8 this year en route to 1.0 in 2031. Still, 363,400 deaths, up 1.3%, drove a 110,000 natural decline.
For a nation synonymous with fertility woes, this signals possible revival, urging sustained incentives to cement gains.