A survey found that half of the Korean people think that it is okay not to get married.
As for the reason for not getting married, 3 out of 10 people cited 'lack of money for marriage', which ranked first.
According to the '2022 Social Survey' released by the National Statistical Office today (16th), the proportion of people who think they should get married is 50.0%, a decrease of 1.2 percentage points from the survey two years ago.
'It is okay to get married or not' was followed by 43.2%, followed by 'shouldn't' with 3.6%.
Nearly half of the population, 46.8%, thinks that it is okay not to be married.
In the case of men, more than half (55.8%) answered that they should get married, while only 44.3% of women answered that they should get married.
36.9% of unmarried men and 22.1% of unmarried women answered that they should get married, confirming that the gap between men and women was further widened.
As for the reason for not getting married, 'because of lack of marriage funds' was the most common answer at 28.7%, followed by 'because of unstable employment status' (14.6%).
By gender, men cited instability in their employment status (16.6%), followed by lack of marriage funds, and women cited 'not feeling the need to get married' (15.0%), showing a difference.
"Cohabitation, not marriage OK" exceeded 60% for the first time
The proportion of people who think that 'men and women can live together even if they are not married' was 65.2%, a 5.5% point increase from two years ago, exceeding the 60% level for the first time.
The number of people who think cohabitation is possible without marriage continues to increase, with 45.9% in 2012 and 59.7% in 2020.
The number of people who think 'it is possible to have children without getting married' also increased by 4.0 percentage points to 34.7% from two years ago.