SEOUL - In another piece of grim news underscoring South Korea’s looming demographic crisis, the number of marriages in 2023 fell by 40 per cent compared with the level recorded a decade ago, government statistics revealed on March 3.
According to Statistics Korea, an estimated 193,673 couples tied the knot in 2023, a drop of 40 per cent compared with the 322,807 couples who got married in 2013.
From a year ago, however, the 2023 figure marks a 1 per cent increase, or 1,983 more marriages. In 2022, marriages plummeted to a record low of 191,690. The decline in the number of marriages has persisted for 11 years, from 2012 to 2022.
The marriage data follows closely on the heels of news that the nation’s fertility rate – the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime – dropped to a record low of 0.72 in 2023.
Behind the 40 per cent drop in marriages within a decade are shifting social norms, another report released by Statistics Korea showed.
The report revealed that among those aged between 19 and 34 in 2022, approximately one out of three South Koreans held positive views on getting married. This represents a shift from 2012 when more than half of them (56.5 per cent) held positive sentiments towards marriage.
By gender, 43.8 per cent of men expressed a positive view, while the corresponding figure for females was 28 per cent, down from 66.1 per cent and 46.9 per cent, respectively.
In terms of age groups, there has been a notable shift among South Koreans in their 20s away from marriage. The percentage of marriages in the 25-to-29 age group dropped from 59.5 per cent in 2012 to 36.1 per cent in 2022. Meanwhile, those aged 30 to 34 showed the highest preference for marriage, at 39.2 per cent, down from 54.3 per cent a decade ago.
For young South Koreans, the most significant impediment to marriage was money.
The highest percentage of respondents at 33.7 per cent cited a lack of financial resources as the primary obstacle to marriage, followed by 17.3 per cent who expressed a lack of necessity for marriage. Other challenges included concerns about the burdens of childbirth and childrearing, at 11 per cent, and unstable employment conditions, at 10.2 per cent.
The country recorded 230,000 newborns in 2023, reflecting a 7.7 per cent decrease from the previous year’s figure of 249,186. It represents a 47.3 per cent decline compared with a decade before, when the number of newborns stood at 436,455.
Meanwhile, the drop in the fertility rate to 0.72 in 2023 marked the sixth consecutive year with a fertility rate below one, dating back to 2018, according to Statistics Korea on Feb 29. South Korea’s fertility rate was already significantly below the 2.1 level considered necessary to maintain a stable population.
The quarterly figure fell to a shocking 0.65 during the final three months of 2023, the data showed. The statistics agency anticipates the yearly figure to decline to 0.68 in 2024. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
