SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births grew for the 18th successive month amid higher marriages, statistical ministry data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies rose 9.6 percent from a year earlier to 20,003 in December 2025, 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 0.06 to 0.74 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 soared 13.4 percent to 25,527 in December on a yearly basis, while the number of divorces gained 3.8 percent to 7,840.
The number of deaths fell 0.3 percent to 32,536 in December 2025 compared to the same month of 2024.
Affected by the still high deaths and low births, the natural population decline stood at 12,532 in the cited month. ■