Both male and female singles expected higher income from older and more educated partners. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — An increasing number of South Korean singles are considering family background as an important quality to find a “perfect match”, while age difference is becoming less of an issue.
Duo Human Life Research Institute conducted a survey of South Korean citizens between 25 and 39 years of age, asking them about their perceptions of a perfect spouse.
The results showed that a perfect husband should be 177.4 centimeters tall, earning an annual income of 53.2 million won (US$47,725), with private assets of 250 million won (US$221,920), 3 to 4 years older, a college graduate, and working as a government employee or at a public institution.
The perfect wife should be 164 centimeters tall, earning an annual income of 42 million won, with private assets of 170 million won, 3 to 4 years younger, a college graduate, and working as government employee or at a public institution.
Once again, government jobs turned out to be most popular among South Korean singles, remaining unchanged for 15 years for perfect husbands, and 5 years for perfect wives.
Both male and female singles expected higher income from older and more educated partners.
Asking about the age difference, male respondents preferred females 3 to 4 years younger than them (30.7 percent), while female respondents preferred males 3 to 4 years older (25.4 percent).
However, 23.7 percent of men and 23.1 of women also said they weren’t picky about age.
Compared to last year, fewer women preferred older men. Instead, more female respondents either didn’t care about age difference or wanted a partner of the same age.
Male respondents expected the largest value of private assets from a perfect spouse when they were in the lowest income tier (less than 20 million won), while females expected the same when they were in the highest income tier (over 50 million won).
Singles chose personality as the top quality in choosing a spouse (34.8 percent), followed by looks (11.7 percent), and financial capability (11.6 percent).
Family background made it to fourth place this year (8.9 percent), jumping up from sixth place in the previous year.
Male singles wanted to get married at 34.9 years of age, while female singles preferred 33.7 years, slightly higher than average age of marriage in South Korea announced by Statistics Korea (32.9 years for men, 30.2 years for women in 2017).
More men insisted on marriage (32.1 percent) than women (23.7 percent). Men also had more expectations for happy married life (37.4 percent) than women (28.6 percent).
“It is interesting to note that more people are considering not just the individual factors, but also the environmental factors when they choose their spouse,” said Duo.
“Lower expectations for marriage or happy married life among women are a reflection of the increasing number of females who want to stay single.”
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
