SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's total fertility rate hit a four-year high in 2025 due to a continued growth in births, statistical ministry data showed Wednesday.
The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during life, rose 0.05 to 0.80 in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
It marked the highest in four years since 2021 when the fertility rate recorded 0.81.
The rate, required to stay at the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman to maintain a stable population, tumbled from 1.24 in 2015 to 0.72 in 2023 before rebounding to 0.75 in 2024.
The number of newborn babies swelled 6.8 percent from a year earlier to 254,500 in 2025 after growing 3.6 percent in 2024.
The figure had continued to go down for the eighth consecutive year through 2023.
The number of deaths gained 1.3 percent over the year to 363,400 in 2025.
Affected by higher deaths than births, the natural population decline reached 108,900 in 2025. The country's total population saw a natural decline for the sixth straight year since 2020. ■
