After nearly a decade of birth rates in steady decline, South Korea reversed that trend to report a significant uptick in newborns in 2024.

Announced by the government-run Statistics Korea agency on February 26, a total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6% from a record low of just 230,000 in 2023.

And while the increase is certainly grounds for celebration in a nation that is recognized as one of the most rapidly contracting and aging in the world, analysts caution that the rebound is the result of a series of unique factors and that the longer-term outlook remains bleak.

"South Korea's population crisis is just beginning," said Hyobin Lee, a professor at Sogang University in Seoul.

"With a total fertility rate that is still below 1.0, the situation is becoming increasingly severe and I believe that fewer people will choose to have children in the future," she told DW. "Gender conflicts are also intensifying and economic inequality is worsening."

According to Statistics Korea, the nation's total fertility rate, or the average number of children that a woman will give birth to during her lifetime, rose from 0.72 in 2023 to 0.75 in 2024. Yet that figure is still short of the rate of 2.1 children per woman that is generally considered necessary to maintain a stable population.

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