Seoul, December 26 (IANS). The month of October has made South Korea happy due to falling birth rate. The data for the month of October for the last 14 years shows that this time the increase in birth rate has been good.
This information has been received from the data released on Thursday. This increase comes amid efforts to address serious population challenges in the country caused by extremely low birth rates and rapid aging.
A total of 21,398 babies were born in October, up 13.4 percent from 18,878 newborns a year earlier, Yonhap news agency reported, citing data compiled by Statistics Korea.
This is the largest annual increase since November 2010, when the number of deliveries increased by 17.5 percent.
Im Young-il, an agency official, said more couples got married from the second half of 2022 to the first half of 2023 after delaying their weddings during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Korea is grappling with a continuing decline in its birth rate, as increasing numbers of young people are choosing to delay or avoid marriage and parenthood.
To encourage marriage and improve fertility rates, the government has introduced various marriage benefits and child care assistance.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths in October declined by 3.2 percent compared to last year to 29,819. According to this, South Korea recorded a natural population decline of 8,421 in this month.
The number of deaths has continued to exceed the number of newborns since the fourth quarter of 2019.
The report also said the number of couples getting married in October rose 22.3 percent from last year to 19,551, the highest increase in history.
The number of couples getting divorced dropped 7.8 percent to 7,300 compared to last year, the data said.
–IANS
PSK/KR
