South Korea’s birth rate increased in 2025 for a second consecutive year, driven in part by younger millennials, or “echo boomers,” according to data released Wednesday.

Newsweek reached out to the South Korean Embassy in the U.S. via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Roughly two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in regions where total fertility rates—the number of births expected per woman—fall below the 2.1 threshold needed for natural population replacement, according to the United Nations. The trend has policymakers concerned about the long-term vitality of their economies.

The demographic shift is even more pronounced in East Asia, amid rising living costs and changing attitudes toward marriage and parenthood among younger generations. South Korea has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, second only to Taiwan, which recently overtook it.

The countries, along with Japan, are classified as “super-aged societies,” where at least 20 percent of the population is 65 or older. China is expected to join that category next decade.

What To Know

South Korea recorded 254,000 births last year, the largest year-on-year increase since 2010, according to preliminary data from the national statistics agency.

The fertility rate, or the number of births expected per woman over her lifetime, rose to 0.80, up from 0.75 the previous year and 0.72 in 2023. The increase was largely driven by women aged 30 to 34, with the average maternal age at 33.2. This group recorded 73.2 births per 1,000 women, compared with 21.3 among women in their late 20s.

This cohort is often referred to as “echo boomers” in South Korea—the children of the country’s earlier baby boomer generation.

Analysts say it’s unclear how much of the increase is due to the government’s heavy spending on pronatalist measures, including baby allowances and child care subsidies, and to preferential mortgage rates, which have also contributed to the increase.

South Korea recorded 363,400 deaths last year, 108,900 more than births.

What People Are Saying

Kang Hyun-young, an official overseeing birthrate policy at the ministry, told Aju Press: “The increase in marriages over the past three years provides a foundation. But whether the trend continues depends on demographic structure and ongoing social changes.”

Jung Jae-hoon, a professor at Seoul Women’s University’s Department of Social Welfare, previously told Newsweek: “Expanded natalist policies, in my view, have influenced those who were deliberating the choice of marriage and childbirth to proceed with these decisions.

“The fundamental cause of South Korea’s low birth-rate problem lies in the significant number of people who aren’t even contemplating the choice of having children. A genuine and lasting reversal of the low birth-rate phenomenon will only occur when these individuals develop hope and vision for a life and society that includes raising children.”

What Happens Next

It remains to be seen how long South Korea can sustain its modest baby bump and whether greater interest in rearing families takes hold among subsequent, numerically smaller generations.

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