Seoul, Dec 24 : The number of babies born increased for the past 16 consecutive months as of October, but the pace of growth slowed to the lowest since the start of this year, government data showed on Wednesday.

A total of 21,958 babies were born in October, up 2.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, Yonhap News Agency reported.

It marked the 16th consecutive month of increase since July 2024 but also the slowest on-year growth of the year, the data showed.

Cumulative childbirths through October stood at 212,998, up 6.5 per cent on-year, marking the highest pace of growth for the cited period since 1991, the agency said.

The total number of babies born over the 10-month period, however, was the third lowest after 2024 and 2023.

The country's total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, went up 0.02 year-on-year to 0.81.

By age group, the birthrate was the highest for women aged 30 to 34.

The number of marriages in October came to 19,586, up 0.2 per cent on-year. During the first 10 months of the year, a total of 195,764 marriages were reported, marking the highest in seven years.

Should this trend continue, the ministry expects the annual marriage numbers to increase for the third consecutive year.

The number of divorces in October was 7,478, up 2.4 per cent year-over-year.

In October, 29,739 people died, down 0.3 per cent from a year ago.

Despite the increase in the number of births, the entire population declined by 7,781 in October as more deaths were reported than births.

The South Korean population has been on a downward trend since November 2019, according to the data.

/IANS