South Korea’s number of newborns rose for the 13th straight month in July, fueled by a surge in marriages, according to government data released Wednesday.

Statistics Korea reported that 21,803 babies were born in July, a 5.9 percent increase from 20,580 in the same month last year.

While this marked more than a year of continuous growth, it was still the fourth-lowest figure for July since records began in 1981.

From January to July, a total of 147,804 babies were born, up 7.2 percent from the same period in 2024. This represents the highest growth rate since 1981 and the first on-year increase in the January-to-July period since 2015.

The country’s total fertility rate—the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime—rose to 0.8 in July, up 0.04 from a year earlier.

“The rise in births appears to be influenced by a continued increase in marriages, government policies supporting childbirth and the growth in the population of women in their early 30s,” an official at Statistics Korea said.

In South Korea, where childbirth outside of marriage remains rare, an increase in marriages tends to precede a rise in births. (Yonhap)

This file photo taken July 24, 2025, shows a newborn baby at a hospital in Goyang, just west of Seoul. (PNA)