South Korea's birthrate, the lowest in the world, rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, as more couples tied the knot after pandemic delays, and as policy efforts to incentivise companies and Koreans to embrace parenthood start to pay off.

South Korea’s fertility rate has risen for the first time in nine years, as a surge in marriages after the pandemic spurs hopes that the world’s fastest-ageing society may have turned a corner. The country’s fertility rate — the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime — increased from 0.

South Korea recorded the first increase in its fertility rate in nine years, in a rare piece of positive news for policymakers who have ramped up childcare support in one of the world’s fastest-aging societies.