SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births kept falling for the 92nd successive month, leading to a continued slide in population, statistical office data showed on Wednesday.

The number of newborn babies retreated 6.7 percent over the year to 19,102 in July, according to Statistics Korea.

The newborns have been on the decline since December 2015 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.

The number of marriages slipped 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 14,155 in July, while the number of divorces fell 0.5 percent to 7,500.

The number of deaths increased 8.3 percent to 28,239 in the cited month.

Affected by higher deaths and lower births, the country's population continued to fall for the 45th successive month since November 2019.