[Getty Images Bank]
[Getty Images Bank]

South Korean youth showed the least interest in romantic relationships among young people in five countries surveyed, with economic factors — including employment status and income level — found to influence both dating experience and interest in dating.

Weekly Kyunghyang on Monday published an analysis of a survey of 8,242 young adults across South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Spain.

The Japan and China portions of the survey were conducted by DataSpring Korea in July 2026 at the request of Underscore, a knowledge-content startup. The South Korea, US and Spain portions were carried out by Qualtrics in May 2024 at the request of a research team led by Kim Jo-eun, a professor at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management.

All five countries were surveyed using identical questions and analytical criteria.

Among unmarried South Koreans between the ages of 18 and 39, 55.4 percent said they had no interest in dating — the highest share among the five countries. Japan came second at 54.2 percent, followed by the United States at 35.8 percent, Spain at 29.2 percent and China at 24.7 percent.

South Korean women were particularly disengaged, with 60.8 percent — roughly six in 10 — saying they had no interest in dating, the highest rate among men and women across all five countries surveyed. Among South Korean men, 47.7 percent said the same, a figure approaching half.

However, the reasons behind that disinterest differed between men and women.

Women who said they were not interested in dating were more likely to have had prior relationships and chosen not to pursue another, while men were more likely to have never dated at all.

Among youth who said they were not interested in dating, 70.9 percent of men reported having no dating experience whatsoever, compared with 48.1 percent of women.

Youth with no dating experience also tended to face more precarious employment situations.

The survey found that 38.5 percent of South Korean youth with no dating experience were unemployed — a figure that includes those actively seeking work as well as those who had given up looking. By contrast, the unemployment rate among those with dating experience stood at 12.9 percent. The gap of 25.6 percentage points between the two groups was far wider than in any other country surveyed.

Income level also emerged as a factor dividing those with and without interest in dating.

When South Korean youth were divided into four income groups, 66.2 percent of those in the bottom quartile said they had no interest in dating, compared with just 37.5 percent among those in the top quartile.

A link between dating experience and perceived class background was also identified. When asked which socioeconomic class their family belonged to during childhood, South Korean youth with no dating experience scored an average of 5.16 points, compared with 6.47 points among those who had dated.


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