SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's births grew for the fifth straight month in January amid lingering worry about the continued population fall, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of newborn babies jumped 11.6 percent from a year earlier to 23,947 in January, continuing to increase since September last year, according to Statistics Korea.

The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during life, added 0.08 to 0.88 in the cited month.

The higher births came amid hovering concerns about the younger generation, who delayed or gave up on having children on the back of economic difficulties such as high housing prices and stubborn unemployment.

The still low birth rate fueled worry about a demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp fall in the heads of households eventually leading to a consumption cliff.

The number of deaths soared 21.9 percent to 39,473 in January compared to the same month of last year.

Affected by higher deaths and the still low births, the natural population decline reached 15,526 in the cited month. Enditem

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