The youth population of Korea’s capital has sharply decreased over the last two decades due to the country’s low birthrate, a report showed Wednesday.

According to statistics released by Seoul Metropolitan Government, the number of Seoul citizens aged 17 and under recorded 1.59 million last year, a 45.6 percent decline from 1994.

The group accounted for 27.1 percent of the capital’s total population in 1994 but the number tumbled to 15.7 percent last year, the report said. Meanwhile, Seoul’s overall population declined by 6.1 percent in that period to hit 11 million last year.

The number of elementary school students also nearly halved to about 457,000, the lowest figure since the data was first complied in 1965, the report added.