National Data Office reports June births rise 15.6 percent

The National Data Office said Tuesday that the number of babies born in South Korea rose 15.6 percent in June from a year earlier, marking the largest year-on-year increase for the month since records began.

A total of 23,111 children were born last month, up by 3,115 from the same period in 2025, while the provisional total fertility rate for June stood at 0.88, an increase of 0.11 from the previous year. First-born children accounted for 63.8 percent of all births, rising 2.3 percentage points from the previous year, whereas the share of second and third-or-higher order births declined.

Marriages also saw a double-digit jump, with 21,075 couples tying the knot in June, a 14.0 percent rise. Divorces increased by 13.5 percent to reach 7,688 cases nationwide.

Despite the uptick in births and marriages, the population continued to shrink naturally as deaths outnumbered newborns by 4,683 during the month. Some 27,794 people died in June, up 2.0 percent from a year ago.

Every province and metropolitan city across the country reported an increase in births compared with June 2025, with the capital region leading the growth. Gyeonggi Province recorded 6,915 births, a 16.6 percent increase, while Seoul saw 4,350 newborns, representing an 18.7 percent rise year on year.

For the first half of the year, cumulative births reached 145,804, up 15.4 percent from the same period in 2025, setting a new record for the highest growth rate in the first six months since data collection started.