The number of babies born in February fell over three percent on-year to plunge to an all-time low for the month.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, 19-thousand-362 babies were born in February, down three-point-three percent from a year earlier. It is the first time that the February tally dipped to its lowest level of below 20-thousand since the state agency began compiling related data in 1981.

The monthly tally has continued a 17-month streak of on-year decline since October 2022.

The crude birth rate, which is the annual number of live births per one-thousand population, dropped zero-point-three on-year to four-point-eight.

The number of deaths in February, on the other hand, rose nine-point-six percent on-year to an all-time high for the month at 29-thousand-977, leading to a natural population decline of ten-thousand-614.