South Korea July Births Hit Near 7-Year Monthly High at 24,275

The scale of the turnaround matters more than the monthly figure: a 14.7% rise in cumulative births is the largest on record, and a fertility rate of 0.89, while still far below replacement, moves in the opposite direction from the long demographic decline that has shaped South Korea's economic and fiscal outlook. Whether this reflects a durable shift or a temporary rebound is the open question, and the answer bears on labor supply, pension math and domestic demand assumptions over the coming decades.