Trendspotting: Marriages in South Korea Sink to a Record Low

NewsWire: 4/7/21

• In 2020, the number of marriages in South Korea fell -11% to an all-time low. It was the ninth straight year of decline and comes amid new government data showing that more young people are souring on the idea of marriage and kids. (Korea Times)
• NH: Last month, we reported that South Korea’s fertility rate had fallen to an all-time low. (See “South Korea's Falling Fertility Keeps Breaking Records.”) The sobering news keeps coming: Marriages, too, have fallen to an all-time low.
• In 2020, the number of couples tying the knot fell to 214,000, down 10.7% from the year before. The figure is the lowest since 1970, when Statistics Korea began tracking these figures, and represents the ninth straight year of decline. It’s also the first double-digit decline in 23 years.
• This drop comes as more Koreans express ambivalence towards marriage and children. According to a new government survey, only 51.2% of those age 13 and older think they must get married. That’s down 14 percentage points from 2010.
• Young people are even less enthusiastic about having kids. Among teenagers (ages 13-19), 60.6% said that kids aren’t necessary after marriage. Among those in their 20s, 52.5% agreed. Those with more education were more likely to say that they don’t need to have children. To officials’ dismay, well-educated young adults are of course the married people they most hope will have children.

• The survey also showed a growing gap between men and women’s opinions. Fully 58.2% of Korean men said marriage is necessary, compared to only 44.4% of women. What’s more, 72.7% of men said having children after marriage is necessary (up +0.1 percentage points YoY), while 63.4% of women felt the same (down -3.2 percentage points YoY).
• The typical American gender stereotype would suggest that it’s men dragging their feet to the protests of women who want to get to the altar. That’s not the case here. In deeply patriarchal South Korea, it’s men who are more likely to want a wife and children--and women who are increasingly envisioning that future and saying, “No thanks.”