The number of babies born in Korea inched up in 2011 but the birthrate still remained substantially low despite government efforts to encourage people to have more babies to decelerate the pace of future population decline, a report showed Thursday.
The number of children born last year came to some 471,300, up 0.2 percent or 1,100 from a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea. The increase followed a 5.7-percent growth tallied in 2010.
The increase comes as Seoul offers various incentives to encourage citizens to have more children.
The report showed that the total fertility rate, or the number of babies that a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, grew slightly to 1.244 from the previous year's 1.226.
The rate is still low compared with birth rates for other major countries. The average birth rate among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was 1.74 in 2010.
The chronically low birthrate and aging population are feared to hurt the economy by reducing the workforce and driving up welfare burdens.
The report also underlined a growing trend among Koreans to delay getting married and having babies.
Women's average age of having their first baby stood at 30.25, up 0.15 from a year earlier and much older than the 27.97 tallied in 2001, the report showed.
Of the total number of children born last year, 242,100 were boys, down 800 from a year earlier, while the number of girls grew by 1,800 to 229,100, the report showed.
For every 100 girls born last year, there were 105.7 boys. The gender ratio among newborns was down from 106.9 a year earlier, according to the report. (Yonhap)