SEOUL (XINHUA) – South Korea’s births kept falling for the 87th straight month in February, fuelling concerns about a so-called demographic cliff, statistical office data showed yesterday.
The number of newborn babies was 19,939, down 3.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest February figure since relevant data began to be compiled in 1981.
The newborns have been on the decline since December 2015 as more young people delayed or gave up on having children due to economic difficulties, such as high housing prices and higher education costs.
The low birth rate boosted worry about the demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp fall in the heads of households eventually leading to a consumption cliff.
The number of marriages increased 16.6 per cent over the year to 17,846 in February owing to the lifting of measures against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of divorces added 1.3 per cent to 7,228 in the cited month.
The number of deaths declined 6.5 per cent to 27,390 due to the weakened pandemic effect.
Affected by the still high deaths and the births slide, the country’s population kept skidding for the 40th successive month since November 2019.
