SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births grew for the 16th successive month amid higher marriages, statistical ministry data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies rose 2.5 percent from a year earlier to 21,958 in October, continuing to go up since July 2024, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during life, added 0.02 to 0.81 in the cited month, but it stayed far below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman to maintain a stable population.
The number of marriages inched up 0.2 percent to 19,586 in October on a yearly basis, while the number of divorces climbed 2.4 percent to 7,478.
The number of deaths edged down 0.3 percent to 29,739 in October compared to the same month of last year.
Affected by the still high deaths and low births, the natural population decline stood at 7,781 in the cited month. ■
