SEOUL, Jan. 24-- South Korea's births kept falling in November last year amid lingering worry about the continued slide in the Asian country's population, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of newborn babies retreated 7.6 percent from a year earlier to 17,531 in November, marking the lowest November figure since relevant data began to be compiled in 1981, according to Statistics Korea.

The newborns had been on the decline since October 2022 as more young people delayed or gave up on having children due to economic difficulties such as high housing prices and stubborn unemployment.

The low birth rate fueled worry about the demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp fall in the heads of households eventually leading to a consumption cliff.

At the same time, the number of marriages declined 4.4 percent over the year to 16,695 in November, while the number of divorces dwindled 6.8 percent to 7,923.

The number of deaths increased 0.3 percent to 30,255 in the cited month.

Affected by the still high deaths and the lower births, the population of South Korea continued to fall for the 49th straight month since November 2019.