This file photo taken July 24, 2025, shows nurses taking care of babies at a hospital in the city of Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – The proportion of births outside of marriage reached an all-time high last year, data showed Wednesday, indicating a possible shift in accepted norms.
A total of 13,800 babies were born out of wedlock in 2024, accounting for a record 5.8 percent of all births in the country, according to Statistics Korea.
The ratio had stayed at around 2 percent from 2014 to 2017 but steadily rose to 2.2 percent in 2018, 3.9 percent in 2022 and further to 4.7 percent in 2023.
“A major factor appears to be the changing perception that children must be born within marriage,” agency official Park Hyun-jeong said.
In related surveys, the share of respondents who view having children outside of marriage as acceptable increased from 21.5 percent in 2008 to 37.2 percent in 2024, the official added.
In 2024, the number of babies born in South Korea increased for the first time in nine years.
A total of 238,300 babies were born in 2024, up 3.6 percent from a record low of 230,000 in 2023.
The total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, also rebounded for the first time in nine years, reaching 0.75 in 2024, up from 0.72 tallied the previous year.
The number of babies born within two years of marriage reached 79,137, or 35 percent of the total newborns last year, marking the first on-year increase in 12 years.
The rise in early post-marriage births can be seen as a positive sign, as it indicates a higher likelihood of additional childbirths, according to the agency.
The average maternal age rose to 33.7 years in 2024, up 0.1 year from the previous year.
The average age of fathers at childbirth was 36.1 years, remaining unchanged from the previous year, the data showed.
(Yonhap)
