By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
The number of babies born here has been on a downward curve over the past decade, as more women choose to delay marriage and pursue a career. Rising costs associated with childcare and unstable employment conditions have also discouraged women from having babies, making Korea the most rapidly aging nation in the world.
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) Tuesday, Korean women in their 20s were largely responsible for the country's declining birthrates. The birthrate among females aged 25-29 stood at 92.3 percent in 2005, down from 177.1 percent 10 years ago, as a growing number of young women are opting to work rather than marry early and raise children.
The birthrate is calculated by dividing the number of newborns given by a certain age group with the total number of women in that age group. The figure is then multiplied by 1,000, according to the statistical office.
But the rate among women aged 30-34 fell by a much smaller margin to 70 percent from 82.4 percent over the past decade.
Even though the number of babies born last year rose for the second straight year, the nation still has a far lower birthrate than other OECD countries.
The birthrate, or the average number of babies expected per woman aged 15-49, increased to 1.26 last year from 1.13 in 2006. In 2005, the country recorded the lowest rate of 1.08. But American women had an average of 2.1 infants, followed by 1.96 in France, 1.84 in Britain and 1.34 in Japan.
The mothers of newborns were 30.6 years old on average, up from 30.4 in 2006 and 30.2 in 2005. Women in their early 30s contributed most to the expanding the number of childbirths, outpacing those in their late 20s for the third year in a row. The number of births by women aged 30 to 34 totaled 207,000 last year, up 18,000 from 2006. That of women aged 25 to 29 rose by 14,000 to 188,000 during the same period.
Meanwhile, the number of people with religious beliefs has increased at a steady pace over the past 10 years, with Catholics growing the fastest, the statistical office said. Religious Koreans totaled 25.2 million in 2005, up from 22.56 million in 1995. The 2005 figure accounted for 53.5 percent of the population.
The number of Catholics nearly doubled to 5.14 million in 2005 from 2.95 million a decade ago, accounting for 10.9 percent of the total population, up from 6.6 percent in 1995. Buddhism and Protestantism were the largest and second largest religions, respectively.
In 2005, the number of Buddhists came to 10.72 million, up from 10.32 million a decade earlier. The ratio of Buddhists to the total population, however, inched down to 22.8 percent from 23.2 percent over the same period.
Protestants decreased from 8.76 million to 8.61 million over the past 10 years, falling from 19.7 percent to 18.3 percent.