A new survey shows that nearly half of the couples in South Korea who got married in the last five years don't have any children . 

According to data released on Thursday by Statistics Korea, among the newlyweds, or those who registered their marriage less than five years ago, 55-point-five percent had at least one child as of November 1.

The ratio is two percentage points lower than last year. 

The percentage of those with one or more child among all recently married couples has steadily declined since marking 64-point-five percent in 2015, sliding to 62-point-five percent in 2017, 59-point-eight percent in 2018, and to 57-point-five percent in 2019. 

The average number of children for newlyweds also dropped by zero-point-03 to zero-point-68. 

Meanwhile, 42-point-one percent of newly married couples own at least one house, down by zero-point-eight percentage points from a year earlier.