Marriages Hit Record Low Last Year

Korea's marriage rate hit a 46-year low last year, according to Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

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Only 257,622 couples got married in 2018, the fewest since 1972, when 244,780 couples tied the knot but the population was much smaller.

The number of marriages per 1,000 people was in fact the lowest on record at a mere five. It has been declining since hitting 10.6 in 1980.

The number of first marriages, which are the likeliest to produce children, dropped by a whopping 61,000 on-year to 200,000.

Statistics Korea attributed the drop to a decline in the population in their early 30s, who are now the likeliest to get married, economic difficulties amid rising unemployment, and a value shift among the younger generation who no longer see marriage as essential.

There are fears that the total fertility rate, which already plummeted to less than one child at a mere 0.98 per woman over her lifetime, could drop further.

The decline mirrors the marriage rate pretty exactly since children born out of wedlock are comparatively rare in Korea and more than 98 percent of babies are born to legally married couples.