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By Yi Whan-woo
Korean women are becoming mothers later in life as the country struggles with a shrinking population and a record-low fertility rate of 0.78, according to data, Wednesday.
Released by Statistics Korea, the updated stats on last year's births in Korea showed the average age of women giving birth to their first child was 33.5 in 2022, up by 0.2 from a year earlier.
Last year's figure was also an increase from 29.5 in 2002 and 31.6 in 2012.
Correspondingly, the number of babies born dropped by 4.4 percent or 11,000 to 249,000 between 2021 and 2022.
The breakdown by age shows women mainly give birth in their early 30s, while more women are entering motherhood at 35 or older.
A total of 73.5 for every 1,000 women between the ages of 30 and 34 gave birth in 2022, marking a fall from 97.7 in 2017 and 78.9 in 2020.
For every 1,000 women between the ages of 35 and 39, 44.1 gave birth last year, up from 42.3 in 2020.
The number of women giving birth between the ages of 25 and 29 has been falling. It reached 24 for every 1,000, down from 47.9 in 2017 and 30.6 in 2020.
The overall fertility rate stood at 0.78 in 2022, dropping from 0.81 the previous year and marking the lowest number since 1970 when relevant data started to be compiled.
The rate was also the lowest in the OECD which showed an average fertility rate of 1.58.
In particular, the rate dipped to record a quarterly low of 0.7 in the April-June period, down 0.05 from a year earlier.
By region, the central city of Sejong, the home to the government complex, had the country's highest overall fertility rate of 1.12, while Seoul reported the lowest rate of 0.59.
A total fertility rate of above 2 is needed to sustain a country's population if not accounting for migration.
During a symposium in Seoul in May, David Coleman, a demographics professor at the University of Oxford, issued a warning that "Korea faces a danger of extinction by 2750 at this rate.”