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At 0.77 children per woman in 2025, South Korea was the world’s least fertile country.
Perhaps heralding a reversal of fortune, though, childbirths have grown at the fastest pace in 18 years on the Peninsula, with a 6.2% increase totaling 233,708 babies between January and November.
The number of divorces, meanwhile, went down 9.8% on-year to 6,890 by November.
It’s a big problem the world over, receives virtually no attention compared to other existential issues, and demonstrates cross-cultural spread: most native populations aren’t having enough babies.
No region is more greatly affected by this phenomenon than East Asia, where Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and China make up 5 of the 10 least fertile countries on Earth.
Hopefully, this sharp increase in South Korea can be sustained. In November alone, the Ministry of Statistics reported, 20,710 babies were born, the highest for the month since 2019, and up 3.1% from 20,083 a year earlier.
2025’s mini baby boom pushed the fertility rate to 0.79. It’s believed that economic assistance for childcare has helped incentivize couples desiring children but who were wary of the economic burden in the high-cost country.
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Yet more joy for the nation’s future came from data on marriages, which were also up year-over-year. Korea Times reports that increases in marriage rates tend to be followed by increases in childbirths, since pregnancy out of wedlock is rare in the country.
Marriage rates increased in November by 2.7% on-year to 19,079, “marking the 20th consecutive month of growth,” Korea Times reports, citing an increase in the percentage of the population entering their 30s.
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