No. of Newborns Hits 4-Year Low
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
The number of babies born here in 2009 was the lowest in four years.
The decreasing number of births has been attributed to more Koreans delaying marriage and childbirth due to increasing financial difficulties amid a tight job market.
Rising costs associated with childcare are also said to have discouraged many from having babies.
Korea is the world's most rapidly aging country.
Statistics Korea said Wednesday that the number of newborns last year totaled 445,000, down 21,000 or 4.4 percent from 2008, declining for the second consecutive year.
The figure is also the lowest since 2005, when the number of babies born stood at 435,000.
In 2006 and 2007, childbirths rose 3 percent and 10 percent, respectively, as many couples who tied the knot in 2006 gave birth, believing that 2007, or the "Year of the Pig" on the lunar calendar, would bring luck to their babies. But the downward trend resumed in 2008.
The crude birthrate, which indicates the number of children born per 1,000 people, stood at nine last year, down from 9.4 in 2008.
The birthrate ― the average number of babies expected per woman aged 15-49 ― decreased to 1.15 from 1.19 over the one-year period. In 2005, the country recorded its lowest level of 1.08.
The statistical office attributed the drop in the number of newborns to the shrinking young female population, adding that more married couples are delaying having children, due largely to financial hardship.
"Women are getting married and giving a birth at an increasingly older age. Many women cannot have a baby even though they want to because they are too old. Unless they marry at an early age, the nation's birthrate will continue to head downward," it said.
On average, the mothers of newborns here were 31-years-old in 2009, up from 30.8 in 2008. Women had their first child at the average age of 29.84 last year, with their second children being born at 31.79.
Women giving birth in their early 30s outpaced those in their late 20s for the fifth year in a row.
The number of births by women aged 30-34 totaled 193,000 last year, down 6,000 from a year earlier. That of women aged 25-29 fell by 13,000 to 156,000 during the same period.
About 51.2 percent of the babies were born in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. Gyeonggi Province had the largest number of newborns at 113,800, followed by Seoul with 89,500 and South Gyeongsang Province with 30,400.