Two in five people in their 20s now believe that marriage is not a prerequisite for having children. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – A significant shift in attitudes toward traditional family structures is emerging among South Korea’s younger generation, with two in five people in their 20s now believing that marriage is not a prerequisite for having children, according to a new government survey.
The 2024 Social Survey by Statistics Korea reveals that 42.8% of respondents aged 20-29 support having children outside of marriage, marking a substantial increase from 30.3% a decade ago. The shift is particularly notable in those who “strongly agree” with the concept, with the percentage nearly tripling from 5.7% in 2014 to 14.2% in 2024.
The change in attitude crosses gender lines, with 43.1% of young men and 42.4% of young women expressing support for having children outside of marriage. Women showed stronger conviction in their views, with 15.9% indicating they “strongly agree” compared to 12.6% of men.
On the afternoon of 18 November, students make hearts out of fallen ginkgo leaves at the Seongseo Campus of Keimyung University in Dalseo-gu, Daegu, to create autumn memories.
This evolving perspective coincides with a declining belief in the necessity of marriage itself. The proportion of young adults who consider marriage either “necessary” or “desirable” has fallen from 51.2% in 2014 to 39.7% in 2024.
The changing attitudes are beginning to manifest in actual birth statistics. In 2023, births outside marriage reached a historic high of 10,900, an increase of 1,100 from the previous year. These births now constitute 4.7% of all births in South Korea, the highest proportion since record-keeping began in 1981.
This trend stands in stark contrast to the overall birth rate in South Korea, which hit an all-time low of 230,000 births in 2023, representing a 7.7% decrease from the previous year. Meanwhile, births outside marriage have shown consistent growth, rising from 6,900 in 2020 to 7,700 in 2021, and 9,800 in 2022.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
