South Korea's birth rate rose last year for the first time in a decade, official data showed on Wednesday, bucking a trend for a country battling a demographic crisis.

The country has one of the world's longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates, a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge.

Seoul has poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.

The crude birth rate — the number of babies born per 1,000 people — was 4.7, interrupting a continuous downward trend since 2014, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea.

And the fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, was 0.75, "up 0.03 from 0.72 in 2023," it said.

"The number of births in 2024 was 238,300, an increase of 8,300 (3.6 percent) from the previous year," the report added.

Park Hyun-jeong, an official from Statistics Korea, attributed the rise to an increase in marriages since the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as shifting demographic changes.

"The population has seen a significant increase in the number of people in their early 30s," Park told a press conference.

The average maternal age at childbirth in 2024 was 33.7 years, Seoul said — one of the highest in the world.

But the fertility rate remains far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain South Korea's population of 51 million.

At current rates, the population will nearly halve to 26.8 million by 2100, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Continued decline

Experts say there are multiple causes for the low birth rate, from high child-rearing costs and property prices to a notoriously competitive society that makes well-paid jobs difficult to secure.

The double burden of working mothers managing the brunt of household chores and childcare while also maintaining their careers is another key factor, they say.

The South Korean government offers cash subsidies, babysitting services and support for infertility treatment.

But the fertility rate has until now continued its chronic decline.

Neighboring Japan is grappling with the same issue — it has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco and the country's relatively strict immigration rules mean it faces growing labor shortages.