South Korea’s fertility rate has increased for the first time since 2015, offering a glimmer of hope amid the country’s deepening demographic crisis.
Preliminary data from Statistics Korea showed that the fertility rate – the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime – stood at 0.75 in 2024, up from a record low of 0.72 in 2023. This rise comes after years of sustained decline, which saw South Korea’s birth rate become the lowest in the world.
