SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — With Koreans getting married at older ages due to shifts in values and demographic circumstances, brides in their early 40s now outnumber those in their early 20s, data showed Monday.
According to Statistics Korea’s Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), 10,949 women between the ages of 40 and 44 got married last year, outnumbering those between the ages of 20 and 24 (10,113).
In 1997, 136,918 women in their 20s got married. In the 25 years since, the number has dropped by a whopping 93 percent.
In contrast, the number of women getting married in their 40s jumped by 50 percent over the same period.
A total of 5,835 women got married for the first time in their 40s, almost four times more than 25 years ago.
A Statistics Korea survey showed that only 35.1 percent of women believed that they should get married, the lowest out of all age groups except for teens, while 42.3 percent of women in their 40s believed likewise.
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