Nurses care for newborns at a hospital nursery in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, July 24. Yonhap
The number of babies born in Korea rose 13.6 percent in May from a year earlier, government data showed Wednesday, in another positive sign amid the country's demographic challenge.
A total of 23,160 babies were born in May, up from 20,379 a year earlier, according to findings released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
Over the January-May period, the total number of births came to 122,694, up 15.2 percent from the same period in 2025.
Korea's birth rate has begun rebounding since 2024, partly driven by a rise of post-pandemic marriages and government efforts to encourage couples to have babies.
