I Do Not: Why fewer and fewer couples are getting married in South Korea

In South Korea, fewer and fewer people are tying the knot. Just 192,000 couples got married last year – a 40 per cent decline since 2012 when 327,000 couples wed. The development will only compound the looming demographic troubles in a country with the world’s lowest birth rate. Let’s take a closer look: What does the data show? The data released by Statistics Korea show the number of couples getting married decreased by 0.4 per cent from 2021, as per Yonhap News Agency. That’s the 11th straight year of decline in weddings.

The 2022 figure is also the lowest since records began being kept in 1970.

The average age for men getting married for the first time was a record high at 33.7 years old. The average age for brides getting married also hit a record high at 31.3 years old. They represent an increase of 1.6 years for men and 1.9 for women for first-time marriage from a decade earlier. Nearly 80 per cent of couples who got married last year were doing so for the first time. Why is this happening? “The number of marriages has decreased partly due to the constant decline of the population aged between 25 and 49,” Lim Young-il, head of the Population Census Division at Statistics Korea was quoted as saying by The Korea Herald.

“Another reason is from the changing perception of marriage.”

According to QZ, more and more young people, particularly women, are eschewing getting married. Less than half of Korean women, who account for the majority of single-person households, believe in marriage. In December, the statistics office released a survey showing that 12 per cent of singles said they didn’t want the burden of raising children. [caption id=“attachment_12214492” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Representational Image/Pixabay.[/caption] Another 25 per cent said they either don’t feel the need to wed or simply haven’t found their life partner. The number of South Koreans living alone by 2050 is expected to more than double since the start of the millennium, as per the newspaper. The percentage will increase to 40 per cent in 2050 from 15.5 per cent in 2000. In 2021, a third of households – 7.2 million people – were living alone. Experts say there are multiple causes for the twin phenomenon of low marriage and birth rates from high child-rearing costs and property prices to a notoriously competitive society that makes well-paid jobs difficult to secure. According to Bloomberg, another reason for the dip in marriage is increasing gender tensions. Then there’s the cost of getting wed. A 2021 study showed the average wedding in Korea last year cost $40,000 – more than a wedding in the United States ($35,000), as per QZ. But that’s not all. The double burden for working mothers of carrying out the brunt of household chores and childcare while also maintaining their careers is another key factor, experts say. Married women also have to deal with discrimination – as evinced by South Korea finishing last in last year’s Glass Ceiling Index. [caption id=“attachment_11155111” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Representational image. News18[/caption] According to The Washington Post, married women have to deal with getting paid less than their male counterparts, face harassment and a lack of upward mobility. Fertility rate down The new data comes as South Korea is grappling with a chronic decline in its birth rate, with the lowest-ever number of babies – 249,000 – born last year, breaking a previous record low in 2021. South Korea had long ago passed the so-called replacement rate after which a population begins to shrink with a record-low 0.78 births per woman last year. According to Bloomberg, marriage and fertility remain closely interlinked in South Korea – a country where births outside marriage remain out of the norm. The government has spent around 280 trillion won ($213 billion) since 2006 in an effort to boost birth rates but the population is projected to fall from about 52 million to 39 million by 2067, when the median population age will be 62. “The government is still preoccupied with marriage as a fundamental institution and resorts to it as a basis to provide social benefits to citizens, which is disrespectful and discriminatory to new generation of Koreans seeking alternatives,” Lee You-na, a researcher at a Seoul-based institute that focuses on family composition, equality and rights, told The Washington Post. “They have moved on and will not easily be talked into bringing back what they see as an outdated institution.” With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.