Jeju records nation's lowest growth in births ... natural decrease widens in August

【Financial News Jeju = Jeong Yong-bok】 Births nationwide rose 14.5% in January-August this year, while Jeju saw a 6.8% increase, the lowest growth rate in the country. In August, deaths increased by more than births did, widening the natural population decrease.
According to the “August 2026 Population Trends,” released the previous day by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, Jeju recorded 2,340 births in January-August this year, up 149 (6.8%) from 2,191 in the same period last year.
Over the same period, births nationwide rose 14.5%, from 169,211 to 193,783. Births increased in every city and province across the country, but Jeju's growth rate was less than half the national average. Births rose 17.6% in Seoul, 16.0% in Daejeon and 15.2% in Gyeonggi Province.
The gap was also large in August alone. Jeju recorded 271 births, up 10 (3.8%) from 261 in the same month last year. Nationwide, births totaled 23,703, a 13.0% increase from the same month a year earlier.
By contrast, Jeju recorded 415 deaths, up 37 (9.8%) from 378 in August last year. The nationwide increase in deaths over the same period was 4.9%.
Jeju's natural increase, calculated by subtracting deaths from births, stood at minus 144. This was a 27-person widening from the natural decrease of 117 in August last year. Nationwide, the natural decrease fell by 1,313, from 7,918 to 6,605, following a different trend from Jeju.
Differences also appeared in indicators that account for population size. Jeju's crude birth rate—the annualized number of births per 1,000 people in August—was 4.8, below the national average of 5.5. Jeju's crude death rate was 7.4, above the national average of 7.0.
However, cumulatively over January-August this year, Jeju's natural decrease was smaller than last year's. With 2,340 births and 3,168 deaths, the population decreased naturally by 828. That was 129 fewer than the natural decrease of 957 in the same period last year. The widening natural decrease in August alone should be distinguished from the narrowing of the cumulative decrease.
Jeju's births fell from 3,222 in 2023 to 3,156 in 2024, then rose to 3,279 last year. The increase has continued this year, but the pace of recovery remains relatively slow compared with the nationwide trend.
A gap was also evident in marriage growth rates. Jeju recorded 1,815 marriages in January-August this year, an increase of just 0.9% from the same period a year earlier. The nationwide marriage growth rate was 5.2%. Over the same period, divorces in Jeju totaled 956, down 1.0%.
Births in Jeju continue to rise, but deaths still outnumber births, so the natural decrease persists.


[email protected] Jeong Yong-bok Reporter