SEOUL - Just over a quarter of South Korea’s women in their 20s said in 2022 that marriage is something one should do, as young people’s inclination to tie the knot continues to fall dramatically, a report said on Dec 15.

Statistics Korea conducted a study on South Korean society, based on a variety of survey data, and found that only 27.5 per cent of women in their 20s have a positive view towards marriage.

Positive views on marriage among these young women were the lowest out of all age groups, and significantly lower than the 41.9 per cent for men in their 20s.

In comparison, 52.9 per cent of women in their 20s reacted positively towards marriage in 2008, showing a major decline in 14 years.

The latest survey showed that about 31.8 per cent of female respondents in their 30s said marriage was a positive thing, also down drastically from 51.5 per cent in the 2008 data.

Women across all age groups tended to view marriage less positively than their male counterparts.

For both genders, older age groups tended to react more positively towards marriage than younger groups – 74.9 per cent of men in their 60s said people should get married, while 68.7 per cent of the women in their 60s thought so.

Young men’s propensity to favour marriage, while not as low as that of women, also dropped drastically from 2008 to 2022.

About 71.9 per cent of men in their 20s reacted positively towards marriage in 2008, but only 41.9 per cent did in 2022.

Among men in the 30-39 group, from 2008 to 2022, those who viewed marriage positively dropped from 69.7 per cent to 48.7 per cent.

The biggest reason – across all age groups – the respondents gave for avoiding marriage was the lack of funds: 32.7 per cent of those in their 20s, 33.7 per cent of those in their 30s, 23.8 per cent of the 40-somethings, 25.7 per cent of people in their 50s, and 30.3 per cent of those in the 60-and-above age bracket said they are not getting married because they do not have enough money.

The report also showed that from 2015 to 2020, young people have grown fonder of non-traditional ways of living.

In 2015, 39.1 per cent of those in their 20s and 30s viewed living alone as a positive thing, and the number grew to 47.7 per cent in 2020.

The percentage of 20-somethings and 30-somethings who positively viewed living together without being married jumped from 25.9 per cent to 40.6 per cent over the same five years.

Positive perceptions towards couples not having children went from 27.7 per cent to 44.1 per cent among the same age group, while 20.7 per cent of them viewed having a child without being married positively – compared with 11.1 per cent in 2015. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK