South Korea: births up for the second year in a row

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After the low of 2023 (230k): 238k in 2024, 254k in 2025, 10.6% more. Children per woman: 0.72 → 0.80. Marriages are up 24%. It is still far below the 1960 peak (1.1M).

Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024; national statisticsOpen on the chart →

Births per year after they reached their lowest level since 1950. A rise can come from women having more children and from there being more women around the age of 30.

The line is births per year; the dot is the low.

Births thousand births per year
230 (2023) → 254 (2025)
National Data Office (국가데이터처, formerly Statistics Korea), '2025 Birth Statistics' (final), released 2026-08-26, Table 1 and appendix table 1
Total fertility rate children per woman
0.72 (2023) → 0.80 (2025)
National Data Office (국가데이터처, formerly Statistics Korea), '2025 Birth Statistics' (final), released 2026-08-26, Table 1 and appendix table 1
Marriages thousand marriages a year
194 (2023) → 240 (2025)
national: Statistics Korea / Ministry of Data and Statistics, 2025 marriage and divorce statistics (table 1970-2025); by date of report (registration); rate per 1,000 mid-year population

National statistics where available, otherwise UN estimates. Selection: countries of at least 3 million with data for 2025 where births rose every year after their lowest point since 1950, for at least two years and by 4% or more in total.

Two or three years of growth are not yet a new trend: such rises happened before, and fertility then fell again.

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Is this postponed births coming back or a real turn?

South Korea: births up for the second year in a row

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