South Korea’s natural population decrease continued in July with births recording another fresh low.

According to a monthly report from Statistics Korea on Wednesday, only 19-thousand-102 babies were born in July, marking a six-point-seven-percent decline from a year earlier as the figure fell from the preceding month for the tenth straight time.

The latest figure also marked the first time July figures fell below 20-thousand since the agency began compiling related data in 1981.

Last month, Statistics Korea said the country’s total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime came to a record low of zero-point-seven in the second quarter of 2023.

The rate is far lower than the replacement level of two-point-one necessary to keep the country’s population stable at 51 million.