South Korea hits record low fertility rate of 0.81% in 2021
Seoul (South Korea), August 25: South Korea's fertility rate hit a new all-time low last year and the number of newborn babies also dropped to 266,000.
Meanwhile, the fertility rate of women over 35 years increased over the previous year, and the fertility rate in the early 40s was the highest since records were kept. According to Statistics Korea's 2021 Birth Statistics, which were announced on the 24th, the number of newborns last year was 266,600, a decrease of 11,800 (-4.3%) from the previous year.
Until 1970, when records began to be compiled, the number of newborn births per year was over one million, but it has since dropped to 500,000 in 2001 and 400,000 in 2002. It fell to 300,000 in 2017, and then to 200,000 three years later.
The crude birth rate, which measures the number of births per 1,000 people, also reached a new low of 5.1.
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The total fertility rate, or the expected number of births over a woman's lifetime, was 0.81, a decrease of 0.03 (-3.4%) from the previous year.
It is also the lowest ever, and Korea was the only OECD member country with a total fertility rate of less than one.
"The age of women at first birth has increased as marriage and childbirth increased, and the overall fertility rate has continued to decline as the birth rate in the late 20s or early 30s has decreased, said an official from Statistics Korea.
Similarly, the number of multi-child families is declining.
Last year, 21,000 children were born in households with two or more children, a 5.9 percent decrease from the previous year.
The proportion of babies born to families with two or more children was likewise the lowest, at 8.2%.
The birth gender ratio, or the number of boys born for every 100 girls, grew by 0.3 to 105.1.
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-PTC News
