This file photo shows wedding gowns on display in a wedding fair. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The percentage of young adults who hold a favorable view of marriage has significantly decreased compared to a decade ago, a survey showed Monday.
According to a survey conducted by Statistics Korea, only 36.4 percent of young adults expressed a positive attitude towards marriage in May 2022, marking a 20.1 percentage point decline from the recorded figure in 2012.
This percentage lagged behind the overall population by 13.6 percentage points.
Among young adults, 43.8 percent of men and 28 percent of women still maintained a positive perspective on marriage, showcasing drops of 22.3 and 18.9 percentage points respectively since a decade ago.
Analyzing by age groups, individuals aged 19 to 24 showed a 34 percent positivity rate towards marriage. Meanwhile, those aged 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 exhibited percentages of 36.1 and 39.2, respectively.
Concerning the rationales for not marrying, 33.7 percent cited financial constraints as the leading factor, followed by a perceived lack of necessity for marriage (17.3 percent), the challenges of parenthood and childcare (11 percent), job instability (10.2 percent) and difficulties in finding a suitable partner (9.7 percent).
Within the subset of respondents who identified financial issues as the primary reason, women accounted for 26.4 percent, a figure lower than the corresponding 40.9 percent of men.
Meanwhile, the proportion of young adults endorsing cohabitation without marriage as acceptable surged to 80.9 percent, marking a 19.1 percentage point increase from a decade ago.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
