A slight increase in the number of people who consider marriage necessary has raised hopes in this country with a declining population

South Korea is a country that is worried about its declining population. The new report has certainly given some relief to the government here, but it still has a long way to go. 

Marriage In South Korea: South Korea is a country where people's inclination towards marriage has been declining for the past several years. A government report on March 25, 2025 stated that the proportion of South Korean citizens who consider marriage necessary increased in 2024. Yonhap News Agency reported that this report reflects a more positive perception about marriage in a country facing a demographic crisis.

In the biennial social survey, 52.5 percent of South Koreans aged 13 and above saw marriage as a necessity in 2024, an increase of 2.5 percentage points from two years earlier. Except for a slight increase in 2020, the figure had been falling steadily since 2010.

The report also showed that 68.4 per cent of respondents said it was important to have children after marriage, up 3.1 percentage points from two years ago. Separate data showed that 2,22,422 couples got married last year, up 14.9 per cent from the previous year, the fastest annual rise since the agency began compiling data in 1981.

The number of newborns increased for the first time in nine years in 2024. The total fertility rate—the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime—also improved, rising to 0.75 from 0.72 a year earlier. The agency identified better attitudes towards marriage and parenthood among younger generations as contributing factors to the rise in birth rates.

Statistics Korea reported that a total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6 percent from the record low of 230,000 in 2023. The figure has been declining since 2015, when it was 438,400.

However, South Korea's fertility rate is still one of the lowest in the world and is about half the average for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. Since 2018, the country has been the only OECD member with a rate below 1.

This is also far below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration. The government's target is to increase this rate to 1 by 2030.