South Korea’s population shrank last year, continuing its downward trend for three years in a row with the number of single-person households close to 10 million, government data showed.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety said the country’s registered population stood at 51,439,038 as of Dec. 31 of last year, down 0.39 percent from a year earlier.

Single-person households continued to rise to 9,724,256, accounting for 41 percent of the total of 23,705,814 households.

Combined with two-person households, the two groups took up 65.2 percent of the total.

The number of people per household hit a record low of 2.17. (Yonhap)