More than 42 percent of first-time newlyweds who have been married for less than five years had no offspring last year, says a report, recording yet another fresh high in the country's dwindling population trend. 

This comes as the figure of first-time newlyweds married for under five years itself dropped below one million in November of last year. Data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday put that figure at 998-thousand, down roughly five percent from a year earlier. 

Of that total, 424-thousand couples, or 42-and-a-half percent, were childless. That’s up two-point-three percentage points from the previous year, and marks the highest posted figure since related statistics were compiled in 2016. 

Further, the average number of newborns of first-time married couples slid to point-71, down point-03 from the year before. 

The statistics agency also found that around 52 percent of married double-income couples had children, while more than 63 percent of married couples in which only one spouse works had children.