South Korea saw 254,500 births in 2025, the largest annual figure in 15 years, thanks to an enlarged generation, known as “echo boomers,” amid recovering marriage rates from the pandemci era.

The country’s fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, rose to 0.80 from 0.75 in 2025, returning to the 0.8 range for the first time since 2021, according to provisional figures released by South Korea’s ministry of data and statistics on Wednesday.

Much of the rebound reflects what demographers describe as the “echo boomer” effect. Roughly 3.6 million children were born between 1991 and 1995, when births briefly rose after the government in effect ended its family planning policy.

That cohort is now in its early thirties, the age at which birth rates are highest. Women in their early thirties numbered an estimated 1.7 million in 2025, up 9% from 2020.