Share of babies from interracial couples hits record amid faster decline in Korean births

[Photo by MK DB]

Six out of 100 babies were born out of interracial couples last year in South Korea, taking up the largest share to suggest fast changes in one of the most ethnically homogeneous societies amid low marriage and birth rate among Korean nationals.

According to Statistics Korea on Monday, 16,421 babies were born from interracial couples in 2020, down 8.5 percent from a year ago. The share against newborns in Korea however took up 6.0 percent, a historic high and up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier.

Of the total, the largest were born in Gyeonggi Province (4,685), followed by Seoul (2,609) and Incheon (1,046).

“The case of babies from interracial marriage has been falling for eight consecutive years, but newborns from pure Koreans declined further,” said Kim Soo-yeong, head of vital statistics division at Statistics Korea.

The decrease in multicultural family babies will likely dip further next year in line with the fall in marriages amid pandemic.

Last year, the number of interracial marriages was tallied at 16,177, down 34.6 percent on year due to decreased cross-border movements under the virus situation. The figure had been on a rise for three years since 2017 amid rising popularity of hallyu, Korean Wave of pop culture, and companies’ advance into overseas markets.

Two third of newly married couples were Korean men wed to non-Korean wives. Of the wives, 23.5 percent came from Vietnam, 21.7 percent from China, and 10.7 percent from Thailand.

Divorces in interracial couples dropped 12 percent to 8,685. They maintained their committed relationship for an average 8.9 years, 4.2 years longer than a decade ago.

In the meantime, total number of marriages also fell 10.7 percent to 214,000 last year.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]