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Because of the pandemic, the number of births in South Korea fell to the lowest on record in the first half of the year... and so did the number of new marriages.
Eum Ji-young has the details.
The number of babies born in South Korea in the first half of the year fell to an all-time low.
According to Statistics Korea, the number of births in the first half of 2020 was around 142-thousand-7-hundred. That's a decline of nine-point-nine percent compared to a year earlier,... and its the lowest for the first half since records were first compiled in 1981.
The total fertility rate in the second quarter was zero-point-eight-four.
That's the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, and it was also the lowest for the second quarter on record.
The total fertility rate for 2019 was zero-point-nine-two,...down six percent compared to the previous year,... which was also the lowest figure since the records began in 1970.
This ranked South Korea last among the 37 OECD member countries.
Statistics Korea said the number of births is decreasing because the population of women in their early 30s is small relative to those in other age brackets.
"The number of babies born is decreasing because the population of women in their early 30s is low and the number of marriages has continued to drop since 2012."
The number of marriages in the first half of this year was down 9 percent on-year,... to around 109-thousand. This is the lowest number of marriages recorded in the first half since related data were first compiled in 1981. In the second quarter of 2020, the number of new marriages dropped 16-point-4 percent on year.
A Statistics Korea official added that the number of babies born is expected to decrease further in the second half of the year and into next year because of all the weddings postponed amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Eum Ji-young Arirang News.