[Courtesy of Iclicart]
The number of marriages in South Korea fell to a record low last year as more young people delay their plans to find spouses amid economic woes, accelerating a low fertility rate and an aging population, data showed Thursday.
In 2015, new marriages stood at an all-time low of 302,800, down 0.9 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
The state agency said young people are less interested in marriage or having children due to costly housing expenses, unstable employment and high living and wedding costs.
Last year males got married at the average age of 32.6 years and women at 30 years, contributing to a low birthrate.
South Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates, at 1.2, out of all the nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In February, the country's unemployment rate jumped above four percent for the first time since 2010. The youth jobless rate surged to an all-time high of 12.5 percent in February, as more college graduates failed to land jobs.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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