The ratio of South Korea’s most economically active population has dropped to a record low in the first quarter.

Statistics Korea said on Saturday that the prime-age workforce population aged between 25 and 49 marked 19-point-24 million people in the first quarter, down zero-point-four percent year-on-year.

The prime-age workforce took up 44-point-one percent of the country’s total economically active population, which is the lowest level since the nation started compiling related data in 1999.

The ratio of prime-age workers hit 54-point-four percent in 2001 but has since decreased slowly as the society is rapidly aging with a low birthrate.

A decrease in the working-age population can lead to declines in the nation’s labor productivity and domestic consumption, weakening the country’s potential growth.

The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade said that if the country’s productive population aged between 15 and 64 decreases by one tenth of a percentage point, the nation’s gross domestic product will shrink by three tenths of a percent.