South Korea's total fertility rate falls under 0.8 in 3rd quarter

South Korea's birth rate in the third quarter this year set another all-time low of under 0.8, and the national population consequently declined for the 35th straight month.

According to a report on September population trends released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the total fertility rate, or the number of offspring a woman of childbearing age is expected to have in her lifetime, was 0.79, down from 0.82 in the third quarter a year ago.

The number of births reached 64,085, 2,466 or 3.7% fewer from the same period last year, and that of deaths rose 10.2% to 85,229. Thus the national population saw its 35th straight month of decline, a streak that started in November 2019.

Write to Jin-gyu Kang at josep@hankyung.com