South Korea’s Marriage Rate Rises After a Decade
Last Updated on March 23, 2024 4:12 am
South Korea’s Marriage Rate Rises After a Decade After the pandemic, interest in marriage is increasing in the country from 2023. Last week, the issue came up in Korean government statistics. A total of 193,657 couples got married last year, up 1.0 percent from 2022, government data showed. In 2022, 191,690 citizens of the country got married. Reuters.
There are various reasons for not getting married in South Korea. One of them is socioeconomic status. Many cannot afford the rising cost of housing in the country. Marriage is generally seen as a prerequisite for childbearing. As a result, many women want to stay away from marriage due to the reluctance to have children. Also, in this case, women make such decisions while giving priority to their careers.
South Korea had the lowest marriage rate in 2022. This rate fell to about 0.4 percent. However, this happened due to various restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier, the number of marriages declined by 9.8 percent in 2021 and 10.7 percent in 2020.
Regarding the reason for the increase in marriage rate in 2023, researchers say that many people were thinking about marriage before the lockdown. But it did not become possible due to lack of opportunity due to sudden epidemic.
In this regard, a government official said, ‘Marriages declined year-on-year in the second half of 2023, indicating that those who delayed marriage due to Covid-19 have now mostly married.’ in men
Yonhap News Agency reported on a recent survey of 500 South Koreans aged 19 to 23. It found that 50.4 percent of citizens did not plan to marry or have children.
The government has said it will take ‘extraordinary measures’ to tackle the low birth rate. Even political parties are promising public housing and easy loans for young South Koreans ahead of April’s assembly elections. But not only South Korea but also China. In the neighboring country, the marriage rate will increase by 12.4 percent in 2023.