Korea’s birth rate increased for the third consecutive year in 2012, while its death rate reached a 30-year high.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of newborns reached 484,300 last year, up 2.8 percent from a year earlier.

This marks the highest since 2007 when Korea had 493,200 babies.

Its crude birth rate increased by 0.2 to 9.6 births per 1,000 people.

Also, Korea’s total fertility rate bounced back to 1.30 births per woman throughout her lifetime.

The fertility rate began to dive in 2001 as inflation added pressure to the lives of mid-income families, with the rate hitting an all-time low of 1.08 in 2005.

It started to climb slowly in 2008 as the government began to introduce welfare measures aimed at encouraging birth to counter the rapidly aging population.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths stood at 267,300 people last year, up 3.8 percent from a year ago, the most since 1983, the statistics bureau said.

The crude death rate reached 5.3 per 1,000 people, up by 0.2, indicating that about 730 people died per day, or about one every 2 minutes.

The death rate among people aged over 65 was the highest followed by those aged below 14, the statistics bureau noted.

The number of people aged over 70 increased by 3,000, a consequence of the rapidly aging society.

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)