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South Korea population drops for first time

Birth and fertility rates fall to record lows as country faces full-scale decline

South Korea announces its 2022 birth data. The country's total fertility rate was the lowest among 38 OECD members in 2019.   © Reuters

SEOUL -- The number of births in South Korea reached a new low in 2020, dropping 10% to 272,400 compared with the previous year, government statistics revealed on Wednesday.

The country's fertility rate, which measures the average number of children a woman is expected to bear over her life, also sunk to a record low of 0.84.

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