Korean births rose 15.6 percent in June and the fertility rate reached 0.88, and the country still lost 4,683 people in the month because deaths outran births
Twenty three thousand, one hundred and eleven babies were born in South Korea in June. Twenty seven thousand, seven hundred and ninety four people died.
The country lost 4,683 people in the month on that arithmetic alone, before anybody moved in or out. The loss over the first half of 2026 is 33,018, after 109,048 across the whole of 2025 and 120,252 in 2024.
That is the smaller half of the story, and it is the half that has been improving fast. June births were up 3,115 on a year earlier, a rise of 15.6 percent. Deaths rose 550, or 2.0 percent. The natural decline was minus 7,248 in June last year and minus 4,683 this June, so the gap has narrowed by more than a third while remaining a gap.
The fertility rate, and where the rise sits
The total fertility rate for June was 0.88, against 0.76 a year earlier. For the second quarter as a whole it was also 0.88, against 0.77.
Both sit a long way below the 2.1 that holds a population level, and both sit above the annual figures the release prints alongside them, 0.75 for 2024 and 0.80 for 2025.
The path through the year is not a straight climb. April read 0.93, May 0.85 and June 0.88, and the first quarter as a whole read 0.95 against the second quarter's 0.88. So the quarterly rate went down between March and June even as the year on year comparison went up.
The increase is concentrated. Age specific fertility for women aged 30 to 34 rose 12.4 points to 81.6 per thousand, and for 35 to 39 it rose 9.1 points to 59.1. The 25 to 29 band did not move at all, at 20.8. So the rise is coming from women in their thirties and from nowhere else.
It is also concentrated by birth order. First children were 63.8 percent of June births, up 2.3 points. Second children fell 1.2 points to 30.6 percent and third or later fell 1.1 points to 5.6 percent. More people are having a first child. Fewer, proportionally, are going on to a second.
Every region up, five in surplus
Births rose in all 17 metropolitan cities and provinces against June last year, which the release states flatly and its regional table bears out.
Five of them recorded more births than deaths in the month: Gyeonggi at plus 843, Seoul at plus 202, Sejong at plus 125, Ulsan at plus 62 and Incheon at plus 7. Seoul was minus 416 in June last year.
Seoul also has the lowest fertility rate in the country, at 0.72 for the second quarter against a national 0.88 and a Sejong figure of 1.22. The release offers no explanation for either fact, and none is offered here.
Marriages, and how they are counted
Marriages ran to 21,075 in June, up 2,593 or 14.0 percent, after a May that was down 6.4 percent. Over the first half they are up 5.5 percent at 124,374. Divorces were 7,688, up 916 or 13.5 percent.
The counting rule matters for reading any of that. Births and deaths are compiled by the month they occurred, with late registrations estimated and added in. Marriages and divorces are compiled by the month they were registered. Those are different clocks, and the release warns separately against dividing one month of divorces by one month of marriages to produce a rate.
Every 2026 figure in the release carries a provisional mark. The annual provisional count for births and deaths comes in February, and the final one in August of the following year.
