South Korea’s birthrate has rebounded after a prolonged decline, with the total fertility rate rising to 0.76 in the third quarter — the first increase in the birthrate since 2015. According to Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) on Wednesday, the number of births in Q3 increased by 8.0% year-on-year to 61,288, the largest quarterly gain since late 2012. This is also the second consecutive quarter of growth following a 34-quarter streak of declines.

The rising birth number has also slightly pushed up the total fertility rate, a key metric that measures the average number of children a woman is expected to have. The Q3 rate of 0.76 represents a 0.05 point increase from a year earlier, the first rebound since 2015 when the rate was 1.15. This quarter’s birthrate was led by women in their early 30s.