More young Koreans perceive marriage and having kids as unnecessary, data showed Friday, in yet another gloomy sign for the country's demographic crisis over extremely low birthrates.
Just 27.5 percent of women in their 20s considered marriage as essential in 2022, marking a drastic decline from 52.9 percent tallied in 2008, according to a recent survey released by Statistics Korea.
Around 41.9 percent of the males in the age group also found marriage necessary, falling 30 percentage points over the period.
For those in their 30s, 31.8 percent of women and 48.7 percent of men were positive about getting married.
The report also showed that while only 27.7 percent of Koreans in their 20s and 30s were positive about having no kids after marriage in 2015, the figure shot up to 44.1 percent in 2020.
Nevertheless, young Koreans remained negative about having children outside of marriage, with only 20.6 percent expressing a positive perspective in 2020, a slight increase from the 11.1 percent recorded in 2015.
The country's fertility rate — the number of children that are expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime — hit a record low of 0.78 in 2022, hovering far below other major countries.
Reflecting the trend, the statistics agency released a separate report earlier this week that Korea's current population of around 51.6 million is expected to decline significantly to 36.2 million by 2072. (Yonhap)