Defying government measures to promote births, the number of newborns continued to fall by double digits in South Korea for the 10th month in a row and is likely to be tallied at below the 400,000-threshold for the first time ever this year.

According to data from Statistics Korea on Wednesday, 30,100 babies were born in September, down 12.5 percent from the same month a year earlier. This was the lowest September figure since the agency started compiling the data in 2000.

Monthly childbirth figures have been declining since December 2015, falling by double digits in the past 10 months. The number of newborns in the January-September period was 278,100, down 12.2 percent on year.

At this pace, the annual tally on newborns will fall below 400,000 for the first time in the country’s history. In 2000, 634,500 babies were born in the country. The number slipped to 492,100 in 2002 and 406,200 in 2016.

Statistics Korea attributed the decline in childbirths to the reduced number of reproductive-aged women and a growing tendency to have children at a later age.

The marriage tally in the first nine months of this year also decreased 5.3 percent on year to 195,000.

By Yoon Won-sup and Kim Hyo-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]