S. Korean newlyweds’ fertility rate at record low

Dec 12, 2023, 11:18 am

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Source: Getty Image Bank

By AsiaToday reporter Lee Jung-yeon

The number of newlyweds fell to an all-time low of around 1 million in 2022, and the proportion of the couples having no children reached an all-time high, data showed Monday.

The number of newly married couples came to 1.03 million last year, down 6.3 percent from the previous year’s 1.1 million, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Of the couples, 46.4 percent did not have children. The number of babies born to the newlyweds came to 0.65 in 2022, down 0.01 from the previous year. The report concerns couples who have been married for five years or less and reside in South Korea.

What is noteworthy is that homeownership had a clear impact on the fertility rate, as 59.6 percent of newlyweds who owned homes had babies, higher than 49.5 percent for the newly married couples without homes who had babies.

More than half of newlyweds resided in the greater Seoul region. Apartments were the main types of residences for newlyweds. Although the number of couples living in apartments rose 0.3 percentage point from a year ago, only 40.5 percent of the total newlyweds owned homes, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous year. Around 29.9 percent of the couples resided in Gyeonggi Province, followed by those living in Seoul with 17.8 percent and the city of Incheon with 6.1 percent.

Dual income was one of the major factors for newlywed pairs in deciding whether to have children or not. Newlyweds that consist of two working spouses are less likely to have children – with those that did at 49.2 percent – compared to such couples in which only one spouse worked, 60.9 percent of which had children.

The dual-income households earned 84.33 million won, compared to 49.94 million won tallied for single-income couples. Despite the rise in income level, newlyweds’ loans increased and the proportion of homeowners among them decreased. Some 89 percent of the newly married couples had loans, and the median amount spiked 73 percent on-year to 164.17 million won in 2022.

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