[앵커]
Among babies born last year, the proportion of first-born babies exceeded 60% for the first time ever.
Due to late birth and the burden of raising children, there is a growing awareness that only one child will be raised.
Reporter Oh In-seok on the sidewalk.
[기자]
Of the 249,000 babies born last year, 156,000 first-born babies accounted for 62.7%.
This is the highest figure since 1981, when statistics began to be collected.
It was above 60% for the first time, surpassing the previous high of 57% in 2021.
Last year, the number of first-born babies increased by 8,000 compared to a year ago, but the number of second-borns decreased by 15,000 and third and older by 4,000.
Last year, the total number of births fell by 12,000 compared to a year ago, but it had no more than two effects.
Although the proportion of first-born children has been on the rise for 12 consecutive years since 2011, the proportion of second-born children has been gradually decreasing since 2015 and third and older children since 2018.
As such, the background of not having more than two children is that the timing of the birth comes later.
From the year before last, the average age of women giving birth to their first child was 32.6, which is increasing every year.
The financial burden of raising children is also a factor that makes it difficult to have a second or more child.
Households with two or more unmarried children had an average monthly expenditure-to-income ratio of 60.4%, almost 10% higher than households with one unmarried child.
[신윤정 / 보건사회연구원 연구위원 : 너무 양육 부담이 크고 아이들이 미래에 행복하게 살 수 있을까에 대한 자신감도 없고 본인의 노후도 준비해야 하니까 1명으로 귀착이 되는 것 같습니다.]
The perception that children should be born after marriage is also diminishing, and the trend of low birth rates is expected to intensify.
Last year, 65.3% of Koreans thought they needed children after marriage, down 4.3 percentage points from 2018.
This is YTN Oh In-seok.
YTN O In-seok (insukoh@ytn.co.kr)
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