Less than 200,000 marriages were registered in South Korea in 2022, the lowest since 1970 when the country began recording demographic data, says the government.
The country recorded 191,690 marriages in 2022, down by 0.4 percent from 192,507 marriages in 2021, the Korea Herald reported on March 16 referring to data from the Korea Statistical Information Service.
The slump in marriages raises more concerns as the country reported in November 2021 that the population was 51.74 million, a drop of 0.2 percent or 91,000 persons from 2020.
In February, the government reported South Korea broke its own record of the lowest birth rates in the world. The total fertility rate, the average number of expected babies per South Korean woman during her reproductive age, dropped to 0.78 in 2022, down from 0.81 in 2021.
The capital city, Seoul, recorded the lowest rate with 0.59.
Lim Young-il, head of the Population Census Division at the agency pointed out that the population decline and the changes in South Koreans’ attitude towards marriage are the contributing factors to the low numbers.
“The number of marriages has decreased partly due to the constant decline of the population aged between 25 and 49,” Lim said adding that another reason was the “changing perception of marriage.”
The data showed that in 2022 the average age of first-time brides was 31.3 years up by 0.2 years and the age of grooms was 33.7 years up by 0.4 years in comparison to 2021.
Among the couples who married for the first time, 19.4% of partnerships were between an older female and a young male.
However, the marital partnerships between an older male and a young female had the major share of 64.4%, whereas 16.2% were of the same age.