SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Almost half of South Koreans said that they do not necessarily get married for economic reasons, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
According to Statistics Korea, 46.8 percent of South Korean people responded that they do not necessarily or should not get married as of 2022. It was higher than 45.8 percent tallied two years earlier.
Among the unmarried people, 55.7 percent of men and 72.6 percent of women expressed negative views about tying the knot.
The growing reluctance towards marriage fueled concerns about the country's chronically low birth rate.
Of the people unwilling to get married, 28.7 percent cited the shortage of marriage funds as their unwillingness. It was followed by 14.6 percent citing unstable employment and 13.6 percent seeing no necessity for marriage.
The percentage of those who said couples can live together without being legally married was 65.2 percent in 2022. It continued to rise from 45.9 percent in 2012 to 48.0 percent in 2016 and 59.7 percent in 2020.
Those who said couples can have babies without marriages also kept increasing from 22.4 percent in 2012 to 24.2 percent in 2016, 30.7 percent in 2020, and 34.7 percent in 2022. ■
