Childbirth in South Korea grew for the 13th consecutive month in March as couples were encouraged to have babies thanks to the ongoing economic recovery, a government report showed Tuesday.
According to the report by Statistics Korea, the number of babies born in March stood at 43,300, up 5.6 percent, or about 2,300, from a year earlier. Childbirth has been growing since March 2010.
"It seems that the ongoing economic recovery continued to encourage married people to have babies," an official at the agency said.
Marriages inched up 0.7 percent from a year earlier with 27,700 couples tying the knot in the month, while divorces fell 4.9 percent to 9,700, the report showed. The number of deaths came to 22,200, up 2.8 percent from a year earlier.
In a separate report, the agency said that 674,000 people changed their residency last month, a 5.1 percent decrease from the same period a year earlier.
The decline was attributed to less people moving to Seoul and its surrounding areas, and the slumping real estate market, it said.