The number of babies born in the nation posted another record low last year, standing at 260-thousand-600.
Statistics Korea revealed the figure on Wednesday, the lowest to be posted since the statistics agency began to compile related data in 1970.
Compared to 2020, the number of newborns slipped four-point-three percent. Such a drop is a narrower margin than those of the period between 2016 and 2020, when the number of newborns saw an annual drop of around ten percent.
The statistics agency said the country’s total fertility rate also posted a new low of zero-point-81 last year, down zero-point-03 from 2020.
The total fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime.
South Korea has been at the very bottom in terms of the total fertility rate among the member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) since 2002. South Korea is the only OECD member with the fertility rate below one, dipping below the level for the first time in 2018. The OECD average was one-point-59 as of 2020.
Source: KBS World Radio