New Delhi: It seems like the many attempts being made by the South Korean government to reverse declining birth rates in the country are slowly coming to fruition. After long running fears of low birth rates in the country, South Korea’s fertility rate rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years. This is also supported by an increase in marriages, new data showed on Wednesday.

According to Statistics Korea, the fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have during her reproductive life, stood at 0.75 in 2024.

In 2023, the birth rate in South Korea fell for the eighth consecutive year to 0.72, the lowest in the world, from 1.24 in 2015. Marriages also jumped 14.9 per cent in 2024, seeing the biggest spike since the data started being released in 1970.

The data is important as in South Korea there is a high correlation between marriages and births. Childbirth is seen to occur one or two years after marriage, as it is an important prerequisite to having children.

Seeing the outsized problem it had become in the country, South Korea has been coming out with several initiatives to reverse low birth rates. It was only recently that recently-impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol declared a “national demographic crisis” and a plan to........

© News9Live