Births in S. Korea up 13% in Aug. to highest in 7 years

SEOUL - The number of babies born in South Korea shot up 13 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the 26th consecutive month of increase, government data showed Wednesday.A total of 23,703 babies were born in August, up from 20,983 a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It marked the highest figure for any August since the 24,371 posted in 2019.The country's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, rose 0.09 from a year earlier to 0.87 in August. The rate remains well below the 2.1 births per woman …READ FULL ARTICLE