In October this year, the number of babies and marriages was the lowest ever. As the number of deaths steadily increased due to the aging population, the population of nearly 19,000 people naturally declined until October this year.
According to a report on the’Population Trends’ of the National Statistical Office on the 23rd, 21,934 babies were born in October this year. This is the lowest number ever since October 1981. It was 14.4% less than a year ago. This is the largest decline in 19 years since October 2001 (-17.7%), when the base effect (statistical distortion that appears too large or too small to be compared) was large immediately after the millennium birth boom in 2000.
![According to the National Statistical Office's'Population Trend' on the 23rd, the number of births and marriages in October this year both recorded record lows. [연합뉴스 자료사진]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202012/23/ddad887f-8e23-4a96-9aac-06eb4102f7e1.jpg?w=560&ssl=1)
According to the National Statistical Office’s’Population Trend’ on the 23rd, the number of births and marriages in October of this year both recorded record lows. [연합뉴스 자료사진]
The number of births per month, which was around 40,000 until the early and mid-2010s, has started to drop sharply, breaking the lowest record every month. Since December 2015, the number has decreased continuously for 59 months (compared to the same month last year). Now, the number of 20,000 people per month is at stake.
The number of births per year, which barely kept the 300,000 mark last year, is expected to collapse to 200,000 this year. The recent decline in the number of births is so great that it is also a matter of time that it will collapse to 100,000 after next year. This is because the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) situation further heightened the low birth rate crisis.
The number of marriages last October was 10,6473 cases, a 19% drop from a year ago. Again, as of October, the number is the lowest ever. The decrease rate was also the largest since October 2017 (-21%). Due to the social distancing measures caused by Corona 19, it became difficult to get married, and the economic slowdown overlapped, and marriages greatly decreased.
Regarding this, Kim Soo-young, head of the Population Trends Bureau of the Bureau of Social Statistics, said, “The population of the marriage age group continues to decrease and the impact of Corona 19 has been significant.” I can see it.”
On August 20, at a large wedding hall in downtown Seoul, an employee is removing chairs for the reception. News 1
The number of marriages and births is decreasing, but the number of deaths continues to increase. It depends on the increasing trend of the elderly population. In October, 26,509 people died. This is a 3.7% increase from the same month last year. In last October alone, the population of 4575 people naturally declined (birth-death). This is the largest monthly decline this year.
The phenomenon that the number of deaths exceeds the number of births has continued since last November. Only between January and October this year, the population of 18,815 people decreased (natural decline). This is the first time that the population is declining every year.
Meanwhile, the number of divorces in October was 9349, down 5.2% from a year ago.
Sejong = Reporter Cho Hyun-sook [email protected]