Total Fertility Rate Falls to 0.84 in 2020

South Korea’s total fertility rate fell to 0.84 in 2020, the lowest since records began in 1970. 

Last year, the number of newborns in South Korea and South Korea’s total fertility rate again reached the lowest since records began in 1970. Statistics Korea announced on Aug. 25 that the former was 272,300, down 10 percent from a year ago, and the latter was 0.84 last year.

South Korea is the only OECD member where the total fertility rate is less than 1. In 2019, the average total fertility rate of OECD member states was 1.61 and that of South Korea was 0.92. South Korea has recorded the lowest total fertility rate in the OECD for no less than seven years.

In addition, South Korea is where the age difference between the first baby and his or her mother is the biggest in the OECD. Specifically, as of 2019, the average difference was 32.2 years in South Korea and 29.3 in 30 OECD member states. In 2020, the difference in South Korea rose to 32.3.
 

In the first half of this year, 136,900 persons were born in South Korea, down 3.5 percent from a year ago. South Korea’s total fertility rate was 0.82 in the second quarter of this year, down 0.03 year on year. In the first quarter, the rate fell from 0.91 to 0.88.

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