A newborn at a hospital in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEJONG, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Among South Korea’s newly-wedded couples who have been married for fewer than five years, those with children gave birth to their first baby 16 months after marriage on average.
The number of newly-wedded couples with babies amounted to 520,321 in 2020. It took 16.7 months on average for them to give birth to their first babies, according to data from Statistics Korea released on Tuesday.
This figure is longer than the 15 months recorded in the year 2015.
As women’s age of first birth increases, the period from marriage to the time of baby birth is growing longer.
In 2020, it took 17.2 months on average for double-income couples to give birth to their first child, longer than the 16.3 months reported for single-income couples.
Among couples who are married for the first time and have been married less than five years, the number of those with more than two babies totaled 110,637.
For them, the average age gap between the first and second child was 23.8 months, a decrease from 24.8 months in 2015.
The survey focused on couples who gave birth to babies less than five years after marriage. Among 938,000 newly-wedded couples, they accounted for 55.5 percent.
The remaining 44.5 percent or 417,741 couples still didn’t have any children.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
