The number of babies born last year rose for the second straight year as the total fertility rate returned to the 0.8 level for the first time in four years. Shown is a nurse on Dec. 26, 2025, at the neonatal unit of Cha University Ilsan Medical Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do Province. (Yonhap News)

By Kang Gahui

The number of newborns in the country last year rose for the second straight year, with the total fertility rate (TFR) returning to the 0.8 level for the first time in four years.

The Ministry of Data and Statistics said this on Feb. 25 in releasing provisional 2025 data on births and deaths. The number of births last year rose 6.8% (16,100) from 2024 to 254,500.

The figure was the highest since 2010 and the rate of growth was the largest since 2007.

The TFR, or the average number of children a woman is expected to bear in her lifetime, was 0.8, up from 0.75 in 2024 in recovering to the 0.8 range for the first time since 2021.

The number of deaths last year inched up 1.3% to an estimated 363,400, leading to a natural population decline of 108,900 since the figure exceeded the number of births.

kgh89@korea.kr