A worker holds a baby at a public postnatal care center in Seoul in this file photo taken Dec. 26, 2023. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Nearly 7 in 10 South Koreans believe that couples can live together without getting married, and almost 40 percent support having children outside of wedlock, a government report showed Tuesday, signaling a shift in perceptions around marriage and childbearing in the traditionally conservative country.
The report was based on a survey, conducted by Statistics Korea in May 2024, involving 36,000 respondents aged 13 years and older. The survey is conducted biennially.
The findings showed that 67.4 percent of respondents believe couples can live together without being married, up 2.2 percentage points from the tally two years ago.
Support for cohabitation has steadily risen since 2012, when only 45.9 percent of respondents had agreed with the view.
Notably, the rate was high among respondents in their 20s and 30s, with over 80 percent in the age groups expressing support for cohabitation without marriage.
The survey also revealed that 37.2 percent of respondents believe it is acceptable to have children outside of marriage, up 2.5 percentage points from the previous survey.
The rate has also been on the steady rise since 2012, when it was at 22.4 percent.
“The survey could indicate changing perceptions about marriage and childbirth in South Korea,” an agency official said on condition of anonymity. The official, however, said it may be premature to determine the impact of such views on the country’s total fertility rate or birth trends.
In 2023, the country’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, came to 0.72, marking the lowest since 1970, according to earlier data from Statistics Korea.
Separate data also showed that of all the newborns, 4.7 percent were born to mothers who were unmarried or not in a civil partnership last year.
While out-of-wedlock births continue to remain quite rare in South Korea, it marked the highest level since the agency began compiling relevant data in 1981.
The survey also showed that 52.5 percent of South Koreans believe marriage is a must, slightly up from 50 percent tallied two years earlier.
When asked why they might choose not to marry, the most common reason was insufficient funds for marriage, which came to 31.3 percent.
The survey showed 15.4 percent of the respondents cited concerns about the cost of raising children, followed by job instability at 12.9 percent.
(Yonhap)
