Applications for vouchers for pregnant women up 8% on-year: data

Applications for vouchers provided to pregnant women increased 8.1 percent from a year earlier in the first nine months of this year, data showed Sunday, in a possible sign of a continued rebound in the number of newborns in a country facing one of the world’s lowest birth rates.

The number of applications for such vouchers totaled 257,761 in the January-September period, compared with 238,507 in the same period last year, according to the data by the National Health Insurance Service.

While the figure does not exactly align with the number of childbirths, partly due to miscarriages, it is seen as an indicator that reflects changes in the birth rate.

On a monthly basis, the number of applications declined on-year in January but posted increases in the next eight months. Double-digit growths were reported in the June-September period, raising views the trend could continue into early next year.

South Korea saw the number of childbirths increase for the first time in nine years in 2024, driven by a post-pandemic rise in marriages, evolving attitudes toward parenthood and demographic changes, according to government data.

The country’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, came in at 0.75 last year and is forecast to reach 0.8 this year.