A recent survey revealed that four out of ten unmarried adults in Korea have no plans to marry. Nine out of ten respondents expressed that the government’s low birth rate policies have been ineffective.
According to a Marriage, Birth, and Childcare Perception Survey conducted by the Low Birth Rate and Aging Society Committee, 61.0% of the 2,011 people aged 25-49 surveyed in Korea said they want to get married or are planning to do so.
On the other hand, 22.8% said they don’t want to get married, even at a later stage of their lives, while 16.3% said they have never thought about it.
The most common reason for avoiding marriage was financial issues.
Around 75.5% of those who want to marry but are still unmarried said they are waiting to save more money.
80.8% of those who said they have no intention of getting married cited financial hardships such as wedding costs and home buying as reasons for remaining single.
Notably, 88.9% of men with no intention to marry chose financial hardship as their primary reason for remaining single.
92.6% of women who don’t want to marry said household pressure and childbirth burdens are their primary reasons for avoiding marriage.
Respondents to the question of how much money is needed for a suitable marriage said that an average of $214,000 is needed for housing and $70,000 for other costs.
Both men and women responded that their willingness to marry and have children would positively change if financial conditions, such as employment, housing, and work-family balance support conditions, improved.
Meanwhile, about 90% of respondents recognized that the low birth rate problem is serious, and the proportion of respondents who judged that there was no effect on the low birth rate policy so far also reached 90%.
In particular, 48% of respondents said they felt resentment against the low birth rate policy campaigns so far.
Respondents said the free use of the parental leave system (81.9%) was the policy that would be most helpful in solving the low birth rate. For women, the proportion wanting to create a culture of equal childcare participation between men and women (83.9%) was also high.
Many find it challenging to take parental leave, having concerns about career advancement, promotion, and placement disadvantages (89.1%) and organizational culture such as company policies (87.4%).
