Births Rose in Baby-starved Korea Last Year
South Koreans are feeling a little bit better about the country, judging from population data released Wednesday. After two consecutive years of decline, the number of babies born in South Korea rose last year. And so did the country’s birth rate, as measured in the number of expected babies born per woman.
Overall, South Korea’s population rose by 215,000 people last year, Statistics Korea, the government’s data agency, said Wednesday. That brings the overall population to just under 50 million, though the country’s official census data for 2010 isn’t yet complete. The number of new babies in South Korea last year was 469,900, up 5.6% or about 25,000, from 2009.
The overall fertility rate, or the number of babies a woman is expected to have, jumped to 1.22 from 1.15 in 2009. The 2009 figure gave South Korea the worst birth rate among all developed countries, or those belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
I just want to pick up the baby in this photo and hug and kiss her!! She is too adorable for words! They are both precious!
Everyday I’ll be working on my articles at the local Starbucks and have various neighborhood infants and toddlers on my lap sharing my fruit and biscuits. They must sense that I need kids or something! The mommies love it bc they get a free gossip and coffee session with the other townies. If anyone needs a babysitting or nanny job, email me! They are always begging me to take care of their children.