More than 42 per cent of 30-somethings in South Korea remained unmarried last year, census data revealed on Monday, underscoring the trend in which many young people delay or give up on marriage amid a prolonged economic slowdown.

Out of 13.7 million singles aged 15 and older, 2.82 million people in their 30s were single last year, up from 2.68 million five years earlier, according to the 2020 census by Statistics Korea.

The percentage of unmarried people in their 30s reached 42.5 per cent last year, up 6.2 percentage points from 36.3 per cent in 2015, Yonhap News Agency reported. It marked the first time for the number to top 40 per cent for the age group.

By gender, 50.8 per cent of men in their 30s remained unmarried, while single women accounted for 33.6 per cent. Many young South Koreans are opting to distance themselves from life’s three major milestones — dating, marriage and having children — because they cannot find decent jobs amid a protracted economic slowdown and skyrocketing home prices.

Accordingly, the country is struggling with a sustained fall in childbirths.

Last year, South Korea’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, hit a record low of 0.84, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep the country’s population stable at 51 million.

The statistics agency said on top of the underlying trend of a delay in marriage, the Covid-19 pandemic may also have affected marriage data.

The census showed women with higher education backgrounds got married less than others, with 22.1 per cent of women with master’s degrees being single last year.

The percentage of single people made up 31.1 per cent of people aged 15 or over last year, down from 31.3 per cent five years earlier as the number of teens sharply declined amid a sustained fall in childbirths.

The proportion of married people accounted for the largest share of 55.9 per cent, and that of divorced people made up 5.8 per cent, up 0.7 percentage point from five years earlier.

Meanwhile, the number of households that raised pets reached 3.13 million last year, accounting for 15 per cent of the total. The data showed 2.4 million households raised dogs, followed by 717,000 households with cats.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed.)