Only 1 out of 3 young Koreans favor marriage: survey

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Only one out of three young adults in South Korea support marriage, a survey showed Monday, indicating that the overall perception of establishing a family after tying the knot has changed significantly over the past decade.

According to a report released by Statistics Korea on changes in young people’s consciousness based on a survey, 36.4 percent of young adults were positive about marriage as of May last year, down 20.1 percentage points from 56.5 percent 10 years ago.

The figure lower than 50 percent of those among the entire population who are positive about marriage. The survey was conducted on young adults aged 19 to 34.

Men turned out to be more positive about marriage than women at 43.8 percent versus 28 percent, still 18.9 percentage points and 22.3 percentage points lower than 10 years ago, respectively.

Even among those in their early 30s, which is typically considered the prime age for marriage, less than a majority of young adults were positive about marriage.

Young people mostly cited lack of funds as the main reason for not getting married with 33.7 percent, followed by not feeling the need for marriage (17.3 percent) and the burden of childbirth and childcare at (11 percent).

Meanwhile, 80.9 percent of young adults believe that men and women can live together without marriage, up 19.1 percentage points from 10 years ago.

Negative attitude towards childbearing have also increased. More than half of young adults, or 53.5 percent, said they need not have children even if they got married. Additionally, 24.1 percent of young adults thought they had better divorce if there were any reason to do so, up 11 percentage points from 10 years earlier. The percentage of young adults who agree with having children out of wedlock is up 9.8 percentage points from 10 years ago to 39.6 percent last year.

The survey showed that 20.6 percent believe family members should be responsible for their parents’ later life, down 12.6 percentage points from 10 years ago. While 60.7 percent saw that the family, society, and the government together should be responsible, 15 percent said their parents should take care of their later years on their own.