South Korea Breaks Record For World's Lowest Fertility Rate, Again
NDTV
The average number of expected babies per South Korean woman over her reproductive life fell to 0.78 in 2022, down from 0.81 a year earlier.
In yet another grim milestone, South Korea has recorded the world's lowest fertility rate with the number falling to a new low. With this, the country has smashed its own record for the world's lowest fertility rate again, CNN reported.
The average number of expected babies per South Korean woman over her reproductive life fell to 0.78 in 2022, down from 0.81 a year earlier, according to data published by Statistics Korea on Wednesday. The number of newborns declined last year to 249,000 from 260,600 a year earlier which is less than five per cent of the population. This is the lowest among more than 260 nations tracked by the World Bank.
As per CNN, countries need a fertility rate of 2.1 to maintain a stable population. While the birth rate in the South East Asian nation has been falling since 2015, it has recorded more deaths than births for the first time since 2020.
The country also has the world's fastest-shrinking population among economies with per capita gross domestic product of at least US$30,000, according to United Nations projections and World Bank data.
