Marriages Continue to Drop as Economy Sags

Published on 2015/04/26 | Source

The number of marriages has fallen to a record low as more couples postpone their plans to tie the knot amid economic woes.

According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, the number of marriages stood at 305,507 last year, down 5.4 percent from 2013.

The number of males aged 25 to 34 dropped 1.8 percent compared to 2013, while the number of marriages among men in that age group fell 8.2 percent.

A Statistics Korea official said, "More and more people do not consider marriage as essential".

The number of marriages dropped 10.6 percent on-year back in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis erupted and fell 4.6 percent in 2008 during the global financial crisis. The average age of men marrying for the first time was 32.4 and 29.8 for women, up 0.2 compared to 2013.

Meanwhile, the number of divorces among couples who had been married for more than 30 years hit a record high last year, accounting for nine percent of the total 115,500 divorces in the country in 2014.

"There were many couples who decided to call it quits after raising all of their children, but the slow economy also seems to have had an impact", the official added.