The number of babies born in South Korea dipped in 2014, but rose for the fourth straight month in June this year, a government report showed on Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, some 435,400 babies were born last year, down around 1,000, or 0.2 percent, from a year earlier.

But some 35,500 babies were born here in June, up 3.8 percent from the same month last year. The annual increase follows a 2.5 percent on-year rise in the previous month. The figure gained 2.4 percent on-year in April and 6.3 percent in March.

The agency said the slight gain is mainly the result of more women in their late 30s having babies.

The total fertility rate, or the average number of babies that a woman is projected to have during her lifetime, reached 1.205 last year, compared with the previous year’s 1.187.