Childbirths in S. Korea fall in November: report

Childbirths in South Korea declined in November last year due to a fall in marriages and rising burden for rearing children, a government report showed Monday.

The number of babies born in November 2014 was 32,300, down 4.4 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the second-lowest since the statistical agency began compiling the data in 2000. The record low was 31,972 tallied in December 2013.

The low birthrate came as couples refrained from having babies for rising costs to rear children amid delayed marriages caused by economic slowdown and growing living expenses.

The number of couples tying the knots in November was 23,600, tumbling 16.9 percent from a year earlier.

South Korea has struggled to raise the birthrate on worries that lower working population may drag down growth potential of the economy. South Korea's potential growth is estimated at 3.5 percent, and the Bank of Korea (BOK) cut its 2015 growth outlook to 3.4 percent from 3.9 percent.

The country's childbirths and marriages are expected to hit a record low in 2014 given the fact that those figures tend to reduce further in December compared with November.

For the first 11 months of 2014, the number of births stood at 403,500, down from 404,500 in the same period of 2013.

During the January-November period, the number of marriages declined 5 percent from a year earlier to 271,300. Endi