Korea’s latest fertility reading is below three comparators

The latest World Bank fertility reading places Korea below Japan, Italy and China among the countries shown here. That comparison is limited but clear: in the latest common year, Korea has fewer births per woman than each of the other three. The country’s own endpoints provide deeper context. Korea begins the World Bank record with a much higher fertility reading and ends it with a far lower one. Those endpoints establish a large change, without showing why.

Compare the endpoints

The comparison chart should be read at its two ends. Look at where each country starts in 1960 and where it stands in 2024, rather than inferring a particular pace from the connecting lines. Korea moves from 5.99 births per woman to 0.748. Japan moves from 2 to 1.15, Italy from 2.4 to 1.18, and China from 4.45 to 1.01. All four latest readings are below their starting readings; Korea has both the highest starting value in this group and the lowest latest value.

From inside Korea, the measure describes a national demographic outcome, not a verdict on families or individual choices. Fertility is the average number of children a woman would have under the period’s age-specific rates; it is not a count of births, a statement of intentions, or an explanation of causes. It cannot, by itself, support claims about marriage, housing, work, care, policy effectiveness or the reasons people have children.

The older share is also larger

A second indicator adds another endpoint comparison from Korea’s own population. The share of residents aged 65 and older was 3.13% in 1960 and 20.3% in 2025. This establishes that the older share was substantially larger at the latest observation than at the start of the record. Japan, Italy and China also have higher latest shares than their starting shares, though the levels differ. Read alongside fertility, this is a description of two measured demographic changes, not a forecast of population size, services or community life.

Korea ends the World Bank comparison with fewer births per woman and a larger older share than at the start.