The number of elementary school students in Korea has halved over the past three decades due mainly to the country’s chronically low birthrate, data showed Tuesday.

According to the statistics compiled by the education ministry, the number of primary school students came to 2.95 million in 2012.

That is a 5.8 percent decrease from a year earlier and nearly half of the 5.65 million students tallied in 1980.

This year’s number of middle and high school students also decreased by 3.2 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, according to the data. Combined, the number of primary and secondary school students went down by 3.8 percent on-year to 6.77 million, it showed.

The number of college and graduate school students edged down by 0.2 percent this year to 3.72 million, marking the first decrease in six years, the data showed.

“The number of students is expected to continue to decline considering the country’s low fertility rate,” an education ministry official said.

South Korea’s total fertility rate, or the number of babies a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, was 1.244 in 2011, substantially lower than the average of 1.74 among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Changes in the social atmosphere where advancing into a college is not a must anymore also seem to result in a decrease in the number of students who opt for higher education,” the official added.

In contrast, the number of preschool children hit an all-time high this year of 613,749, up from 8.7 percent from 2011, according to data. The increase is attributed to the introduction of a new education system for 5-year-olds and an expansion of government support for childcare, the ministry said in a statement. (Yonhap News)