SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births rebounded in nine years amid lingering worry about the continued population fall, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of newborn babies gained 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 238,300 in 2024, marking the first rebound since 2015, according to Statistics Korea.

The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during life, added 0.03 to 0.75 in the cited year.

After peaking at 1.24 in 2015, the fertility rate had been on the decline to a record low of 0.72 in 2023 as the young generation delayed or gave up on having children on the back of economic difficulties such as high housing prices and stubborn unemployment.

South Korea's total fertility rate was half of 1.51 on average among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tallied in 2022.

The low birth rate fueled worry about the demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp fall in the heads of households, eventually leading to a consumption cliff.

The number of deaths increased 1.7 percent over the year to 358,400 in 2024.

Affected by higher deaths and the still-low births, the country's population continued to fall for the fifth consecutive year. Enditem

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