S. Korea’s births grow for 2nd month in May

SEOUL, July 24 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s births grew for the second successive month, easing worry about the Asian country’s population fall, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies gained 2.7 percent from a year earlier to 19,547 in May after expanding 2.8 percent in the previous month, according to Statistics Korea.
The consecutive increase was attributable to the low base effect, which means that the births dropped to the worst level last year.
The newborns remained low as young couples delayed or gave up on having children owing to economic difficulties such as high housing prices and stubborn unemployment.
The low birth rate fueled worry about a so-called demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp reduction in the heads of household eventually leading to a consumption cliff.
The number of marriages jumped 21.6 percent to 20,923 in May compared with the same month of last year, while the number of divorces decreased 5.6 percent to 7,923.
The number of deaths retreated 1.2 percent to 28,546 in the cited month. Affected by the still low births and high deaths, the country’s population continued to slide since November 2019. ■