Seoul: The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign spouses rose for the third consecutive year in 2024, data showed Thursday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the number of multicultural marriages reached 20,759 last year, up 1,042 from the previous year's 19,717 cases, based on the data from Statistics Korea.
The number of international marriages had sharply declined to approximately 15,000 in 2020 from about 24,000 the previous year, and decreased further to around 13,000 in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the figure rebounded to 16,666 cases in 2022. Of the total marriages in South Korea last year, multicultural marriages accounted for 9.3 percent, a slight decrease from the 10.1 percent observed the previous year.
Vietnamese women constituted the largest share of all foreign wives at 32.1 percent, followed by Chinese women at 16.7 percent and Thai women at 13.7 percent. Among foreign husbands, those from the United States accounted for 28.9 percent, followed by individuals from China at 17.6 percent and Vietnam at 15 percent.
The number of divorces among multicultural couples decreased by 1.4 percent year-on-year, totaling 6,022 in 2024. Meanwhile, the total number of couples tying the knot surged 14.8 percent on-year to 222,422 in 2024, marking the sharpest annual increase since the agency began compiling relevant data in 1970.