The data also showed that married women expect to have 1.83 babies on average in 2015, down from 1.96 babies in 2010.

Among 6.92 million married women, 11.2 percent, or 778,000 women, did not have a baby in 2015, up 4.9 percentage points from 2010, the data showed.

It also showed that 37.5 percent of women aged between 30 and 34 said they were single in 2015, compared with 29.1 percent in 2010.

The data is the latest reminder of the low birthrate that has plagued South Korea for more than a decade. Many young people delay marriage as they cannot find decent jobs amid a prolonged economic slowdown.

South Korea's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- stood at 1.24 in 2015, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep South Korea's population of 51 million stable.

The data also showed that 44 percent of more than 15 million married women aged over 20 said they quit their jobs in 2015 due mainly to marriages, pregnancy, childbirth and child care.

South Korea has taken a series of measures, such as expanding workplace nurseries, to try to bring stay-at-home moms back to work to raise the country's growth potential.

Still, many South Korean women complain that their careers can suffer as it is not easy for them to find jobs after spending extended time away from work to raise children. (Yonhap)