South Korea has one of the world's lowest birth rates and is investing billions of dollars to encourage citizens to have more children.
Now there is light at the end of the tunnel: the number of births per year increased by more than 6 percent between 2024 and 2025, according to the country's Ministry of Data and Statistics. This is the strongest annual increase since 2010 and marks the second consecutive year that the birth rate has increased.
An important reason why the trend is now reversing is the increasing number of South Koreans getting married, according to government representative Park Hyun-jeong.
Several countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia are struggling with low birth rates, including Japan, Taiwan, China, and Thailand.
