▲ This file photo taken July 29, 2026, shows nurses taking care of newborns at CHA Ilsan Medical Center in Goyang, north of Seoul. (Yonhap)

By Kang Yoon-seung

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- The number of babies born in South Korea rose 6.7 percent on-year to 254,300 in 2025, data showed Wednesday, while the country's fertility rate edged up to 0.8, signaling a possible turning point in the prolonged demographic decline of Asia's No. 4 economy.

According to an annual report by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the number of births increased by 16,000 from a year earlier. It was the highest since 260,600 posted in 2021.

The total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, rose by 0.05 to 0.8 over the period.

The report showed that the age-specific fertility rate for women aged 30-34 stood at 73.1 births per 1,000 women, down from 78.9 in 2020.

The rate for women aged 35-39 rose from 42.3 in 2020 to 52.1 in 2025. In contrast, corresponding numbers for those aged 25-29 fell from 30.6 to 21.2 over the same period.

The average age of women giving birth stood at 33.8 in 2025, up 0.2 from a year earlier.

The average age at which women gave birth to their first child was 33.2, compared with 34.7 for their second child and 35.8 for their third child.

Mothers aged 35 and older accounted for 37.3 percent of all births, up 1.4 percentage points from a year earlier.

The total fertility rate was highest in South Jeolla Province at 1.09, followed by the central administrative city of Sejong at 1.06 and North Chungcheong Province at 0.96.

The rate in the southeastern port city of Busan stood at 0.74, while Seoul posted the lowest rate of 0.63.

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