The average number of births that one woman in Korea is expected to give birth to in her lifetime reached a record low of 0.92 last year.

This is the lowest among the 37 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Fertility rates declined in all age groups except for those in their 40s, and the average fertility age for women rose to 33.0 years.

According to the '2019 Birth Statistics (confirmed)' released by the National Statistical Office today (26th), the total fertility rate last year fell to 0.92.

A decrease of 0.06 (6.0%) from 0.98 a year ago.

This is an all-time low since statistics began in 1970.

Korea's total fertility rate was 0.98 in 2018, falling below 1, which was considered the Maginot line, and then continuing to decline.

As of 2018, Korea is the only country with a total fertility rate of 0 out of 37 OECD countries.

This is significantly below the OECD average of 1.63.

Last year, the number of births was 302,700, down 24,000 (7.4%) from a year ago, which is also the lowest since the statistics were written in 1970.

The number of births from 1 million in the 1970s fell to 400,000 in 2002 and 300,000 in 2017, and is about to enter the 200,000 range.

The crude birth rate, which means the number of births per 1,000 people, was 5.9 last year, down 0.5 (7.3%) from the previous year.

Of the 17 provinces nationwide, Sejong (1.47) had the highest total fertility rate last year, and Seoul (0.72) was the lowest.

In terms of city and county units, the total fertility rate was high in Yeonggwang, Jeonnam (2.54), Haenam, Jeonnam (1.89), and Uiseong, Gyeongbuk (1.76), and in Jung-gu, Busan (0.50), Gwanak (0.54), and Gangnam, Seoul (0.61). It was low.

The fertility rate by female age (number of births per 1,000 female population of that age) decreased across all age groups, except for those over 40.

The fertility rate was high in the early 30s (86.2), in the late 30s (45.0), in the late 20s (35.7), in the early 20s (7.1), and in the early 40s (7.0).

Among them, those in their early 30s decreased by 5.2 (5.7%) from a year ago, and those in their late 20s decreased by 5.3 (12.9%).

Except for an increase of 0.6 in their early 40s, fertility rates declined in all other age groups.

The average birth age was 33.0, which was 0.2 years higher than a year ago.

The share of elderly mothers over the age of 35 was 33.4%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the previous year.

When looking at the number of births by birth order, the number of second-born children decreased by 11,000 (9.5%) from the previous year, the largest decrease.

The first and third children also decreased by 4.7% and 8.9%, respectively.

The average age of childbirth for women of the first child was 32.2 years, the second child was 33.8 years old, and the third child was 35.2 years old.

The birth gender ratio, calculated as the number of boys per 100 girls, was 105.5, an increase of 0.1 from a year ago.

The sex ratio of the birth of the first child increased by 1.0 to 106.2 and the second child decreased by 0.5 to 105.3.

The number of twins (multi-fetus) born last year was 14,000, accounting for 4.6% of all births.

This is a 0.4 percentage point increase from a year ago.

The share of twins among women in their late 30s was 6.9%, the highest among all age groups.

The proportion of parents having their first child within two years after marriage was 57.1%, down 3.5 percentage points from a year ago.

The number of births outside of legal marriage was 7,000, or 2.3% of the total.

The proportion of babies born under 37 weeks (premature babies) was 8.1%, a 1.4 times increase from 10 years ago.