Barely 300,000 Babies to Be Born This Year

Published on 2019/09/01 | Source

The number of children born in Korea this year is barely expected to exceed 300,000 this year.

Confirmed pregnancies at obstetric clinics nationwide from April last year to March this year decreased 25,613 on-year, according to the National Health Insurance Service. An estimated 301,000 babies will be born this year, down some 26,000 from last year.

Korea experienced a sharp drop in births in the first three years of the 2000s, right after the Asian financial crisis.

But the number of births hovered around 400,000 a year until 2016 before plunging again. It fell below 400,000 for the first time in 2017.