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The number of new marriages in South Korea increased by 29,000 last year compared to the previous year, exhibiting the largest annual increase since 1996.According to the report “Marriage and Divorce Statistics in 2024” published by Statistics Korea on Thursday, South Korea registered 222,000 marriages last year. This was the largest annual figure since 2019, when 239,000 marriages were recorded. In 2023, the total number of marriages came to 194,000, marking the first time the country saw a reversal in declining marriages in 12 years. Last year’s statistics reveal that the annual number of registered marriages has grown for two consecutive years. The annual increase exhibited last year was 29,000 (14.8%), the largest annual increase Korea’s seen since 1996 (36,000). “A recent surge in the number of people in their early 30s coupled with the base effect of the sharp decline in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sudden increase in the number of marriages last year,” assessed Park Hyun-jung, head of demographic trends at Statistics Korea.“An increase in positive attitudes regarding marriage and government policies that encourage marriage also likely had an effect,” Park said. The crude marriage rate, the number of marriages per 1,000 people in a given population, was 4.4 last year, an increase of 0.6 from the previous year. This was the highest crude marriage rate since 2019 (4.7). Broken down by region, Daejeon had the highest crude marriage rate, at 5.6, followed by Sejong (4.8) and Gyeonggi Province (4.6). The regions with the lowest crude marriage rate were Busan (3.5) and South Gyeongsang Province (3.5). The average age among men getting married for the first time last year was 33.9; for women it was 31.6. Compared to the previous year, the average age of men went down by 0.1 year while the average age of women went up by 0.1 year. “This is the second decline we’ve seen in the average male age since 2020, which was impacted by COVID-19,” Park said. Compared to 10 years ago, the average age of men getting married for the first time has increased by 1.4 years; for women it has increased by 1.7. The bride was older than the groom in around 1 in 5 first marriages last year. The proportion of first marriages where the man was older was 63.4%, while the women were older in 19.9% of first marriages. The bride and groom were the same age in 16.6% of marriages. This was the largest ever proportion of marriages with an older bride, which has been increasing steadily since 2014, when the woman was older than the man in 16.2% of first marriages. By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
