Joo Hyung-hwan, vice chairman of the country’s Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy, speaks at the 10th K-ESG Alliance held at the FKI Tower Conference Center in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on the 25th. (FKI)

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South Korea’s total fertility rate is expected to rebound for the first time in 9 years in 2024, with the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime standing at 0.74.

“If the recent increase in the number of marriages and births continues, the country’s fertility rate is expected to be about 0.74 this year, which is higher than Statistics Korea’s initial long-term projection of 0.68 and last year‘s figure of 0.72,” said Joo Hyung-hwan, vice chairman of the country’s Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy.

His remarks were made during a special lecture at the 10th meeting of K-ESG Alliance on Monday.

Korea’s fertility rate has steadily declined for eight consecutive years after rising slightly to 1.24 in 2015 from 1.21 in the previous year.

However, recent increases in the number of marriages and births have raised expectations for a rebound in the fertility rate this year.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of births exceeded 20,000 in July and August this year, while the number of marriages rose to 146,503 in the first eight months of the year, up 12.2 percent from a year earlier.

The National Assembly Budget Office projected earlier that the country’s fertility rate would rise to 0.74 this year.

Joo emphasized the importance of corporate efforts alongside government initiatives to sustain the upward trend in the fertility rate.

“We are entering a new normal era of labor shortages, moving beyond mere mismatches in the labor market,” he said. “It is time for companies to establish new survival strategies for themselves.”

Joo urged businesses to transform their culture to align with changes in demographic structures.

He also reiterated that the government would spare no effort to provide policy support for the spread of family-friendly corporate culture within organizations.