1 in 10 marriages in South Korea last year was multicultural, while children born to multicultural families accounted for 5.3% of all births. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – In a significant demographic shift, 1 in 10 marriages in South Korea last year was multicultural, while children born to multicultural families accounted for 5.3% of all births, according to statistics released on November 7 by Statistics Korea.
The annual report on multicultural population dynamics revealed that multicultural marriages increased by 17.2% to 20,431 cases in 2023, representing 10.6% of all marriages in the country, up 1.5 percentage points from the previous year. The average age for first marriages in multicultural couples was 37.2 years for men and 29.5 years for women.
While the proportion of multicultural marriages had previously exceeded 10.3% in 2019, it dropped to 7.2% in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic before rebounding. Foreign wives accounted for 69.8% of multicultural marriages, followed by foreign husbands (17.9%) and naturalized citizens (12.3%).
By age distribution, men over 45 represented the largest group at 33.2%, while women in their early 30s comprised 23.6% of multicultural marriages. In 76.1% of cases, husbands were older than their wives, with 38.1% having an age gap of 10 years or more, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from the previous year.
Vietnamese women constituted the largest group of foreign spouses at 27.9%, followed by Chinese (17.4%) and Thai (9.9%) nationals. Among foreign husbands, Chinese and American men tied at 6.9% each, followed by Vietnamese at 3.9%.
The statistics also showed that multicultural divorces increased for the first time in 13 years, rising 3.9% to 8,158 cases. The average marriage duration for divorced couples was 10.1 years, with 39.7% having minor children. The average divorce age was 50.3 years for men and 41.3 years for women.
Despite an overall 7.7% decline in births at a national level, multicultural births showed relative resilience, decreasing by only 3% to 12,150 births.
These births showed a distinctive gender ratio of 110.2 males per 100 females, compared to 104.8 in Korean couples. The average age of mothers in multicultural births was 32.6 years, with an average interval of 4.1 years between marriage and childbirth.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
