In this file photo dated April 9, 2023, children attend a parade to celebrate Easter at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, South Korea. (PHOTO / AFP)

SEOUL - South Korea's births kept falling in October, aggravating a continuous slide in the Asian country's population, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of newborn babies shrank 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 18,904 in October, after dropping in double digits for the past two months, according to Statistics Korea.

The newborns have been on the decline for the 13th consecutive month since October 2022 as more young people delayed or gave up on having children due to economic difficulties such as high housing prices and unemployment.

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

The number of marriages grew 1.0 percent over the year to 15,986 in October, while the number of divorces gained 6.0 percent to 7,916.

The number of deaths increased 3.4 percent to 30,793 in the cited month.

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Affected by the still-high deaths and the lower births, the country's population continued to fall for the 48th straight month since November 2019.