The average age of first-time mothers in South Korea rose from 26 to 32 in less than a generation as women contend with the choice between maintaining their careers or having a family.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s(OECD) “Economic Surveys: Korea 2022” released on Sunday, the average age of Korean mothers who gave birth for the first time stood at 32-point-three years old in 2020, or six-point-07 years older than from 1993.

The OECD assessed that Korean women are putting off having children as they face the cold reality of having to choose between work and family, stressing the need to come up with ways to expand free child care or paid parental leave as well as improve work culture.

The report also found that the number of newborns in South Korea slipped to the 200-thousand range for the first time ever to 272-thousand-300 in 2020, resulting in a total fertility rate of zero-point-84, the lowest among OECD member countries.

The total fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime.

The report compared the age of first-time mothers in South Korea to other countries like the U.S., which saw its average age rise by two-point-seven years to 27-point-one in the same period, while in Britain it rose three-point-three years to 29-point-one and Norway by three-point-nine years to 29-point-nine.