The number of babies born in Korea rose 6.7 percent year-on-year to 254,300 in 2025, data showed Wednesday, while the country's fertility rate edged up to 0.8, signaling a possible turning point in the prolonged demographic decline of Asia's No. 4 economy. According to an annual report by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the number of births increased by 16,000 from a year earlier. It was the highest since 260,600 posted in 2021. The total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, rose by 0.05 to 0.8 over the period. The report showed that the age-specific fertility rate for women aged 30-34 stood at 73.1 births per 1,000 women, down from 78.9 in 2020. The rate for women aged 35-39 rose from 42.3 in 2020 to 52.1 in 2025. In contrast, corresponding numbers for those aged 25-29 fell from 30.6 to 21.2 over the same period. The average age of women giving birth stood at 33.8 in 2025, up 0.2 from a year earlier. The average age at which women gave birth to their first child was 33.2, compared with 34.7 for their second child and 35.8 for t