The number of households with children under 18 years old fell below 5 million for the first time in 2019 amid a chronically low birthrate, data showed Monday.

The number of households with children under 18 came to 4.87 million in 2019, down from 5.04 million the previous year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

Such households made up 23.3 percent of the total 20.9 million households in 2019, down 1.3 percentage points from 2018, the data showed.

As of Nov. 1, 2019, the number of people below 18 reached 7.82 million, down from 8.07 million the previous year. It accounted for 15.1 percent of the total population of 51.8 million in 2019.

Of such households, 50.8 percent had one child, followed by two children with 41.7 percent and three with 6.9 percent, the data showed.

South Korea is struggling with a sustained fall in childbirths as many young people delay or give up on getting married and having babies amid a prolonged economic slowdown.

The country's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- hit a record low of 0.84 last year. It marked the third straight year that the rate was below 1 percent. (Yonhap)