Attitudes towards divorce among middle aged and elderly people are changing in a more permissive direction. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The divorce rate for elderly couples in South Korea has more than doubled over the past 20 years.
The number of elderly couples who chose to split up after 20 years of marriage reached 38,446 cases last year, accounting for 34.7 percent of the total divorces, up from 15,816 cases in 1999, according to the data released by Statistics Korea.
The number of divorces among couples with no minor children rose to 59,356 cases (54.8 percent of the total) last year from 33,579 cases (28.6 percent) in 1999.
The age of divorced couples also inched up. The average age of divorced men rose to 48.7 last year from 36.8 in 1990, while that of women rose to 45.3 from 32.7.
In addition, attitudes towards divorce among middle aged and elderly people are also changing in a more permissive direction.
According to data from Statistics Korea, the share of those who said they could divorce in some cases among those in their 50s more than doubled to 49.5 percent this year from 23.3 percent in 2008.
Even among those in their 60s, the share of those who agreed that divorce was an option increased from 12.9 percent to 32.5 percent during the same period.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
