South Korea’s birthrate rises for second yr with consultants saying ‘echo boomers’ behind increase | South Korea

South Korea recorded 254,500 births in 2025, the most important annual improve in 15 years, pushed largely by a quickly enlarged technology – generally known as “echo boomers” – now of their early thirties, alongside marriage charges recovering from Covid-era delays.

The nation’s fertility charge – the common variety of infants a girl is anticipated to have in her lifetime – rose to 0.80 from 0.75 final yr, returning to the 0.8 vary for the primary time since 2021, based on provisional figures launched by South Korea’s ministry of knowledge and statistics on Wednesday.

The 6.8% improve in whole births marks the second consecutive annual rise, though deaths exceeded births by 108,900, which means the inhabitants continued to shrink. South Korea stays the one OECD nation with a fertility charge beneath 1.0.

A lot of the rebound displays what demographers describe because the “echo boomer” impact. Roughly 3.6 million youngsters had been born between 1991 and 1995, when births briefly rose after the federal government in impact ended its household planning coverage.

That cohort is now in its early thirties, the age at which delivery charges are highest. Ladies of their early thirties numbered an estimated 1.7 million in 2025, up 9% from 2020.

Park Hyun-jung, the director of the inhabitants developments division on the ministry, mentioned the rise mirrored the demographic impact, alongside sustained progress in marriages as Covid-era delays unwound and enhancing attitudes towards having youngsters.

Authorities survey knowledge confirmed the share of respondents desiring to have youngsters after marriage rose 3.1% between 2022 and 2024.

Births inside two years of marriage elevated 10.2%, persevering with a restoration that started in 2024 after greater than a decade of decline, suggesting {couples} marrying later could also be bringing ahead childbirth.

Demographers warning that this demographic tailwind is more likely to fade from 2027 as smaller post-1996 cohorts transfer into their thirties.

Requested whether or not authorities coverage contributed to the expansion in birthrate, Park mentioned she “can’t clearly analyse the correlation”, although she famous that younger folks seemed to be influenced by insurance policies geared toward “eradicating penalties from marriage and childbirth”.

South Korea has spent a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} over twenty years on pro-natal measures, together with beneficiant money handouts, housing subsidies, prolonged parental depart and childcare help. Some firms now provide as much as 100 million received (£51,500) per delivery.

Nonetheless, consultants cite persistently excessive housing prices, hovering non-public schooling spending, office stigma in opposition to mother and father and stagnant youth employment as structural limitations that coverage has struggled to beat.

On the identical time, the infrastructure supporting childbirth has continued to shrink.

Paediatric clinics are closing quicker than they open, whereas many municipalities now lack ample supply amenities, reflecting the long-term results of years of ultra-low births.

Remaining confirmed figures might be launched in August.