[EPA]
[EPA]

Interest in international marriage is growing among young Koreans struggling to find a partner, according to industry observers, who advise that working or living abroad can naturally expand one's opportunities to meet potential spouses.

A video titled "Why Korean men in their 20s and 30s have no choice but to pursue international marriage" was recently published on "Ilterview," a YouTube channel with about 490,000 subscribers.

Kim Eun-su, a director at Mirae Marriage Information, appeared in the video and said the number of young men visiting international matchmaking agencies has risen noticeably. According to Kim, men in their 30s now account for about 25 percent of the agency's clients.

He also cited a generational shift in attitudes, noting that younger Koreans tend to have fewer preconceptions about national or cultural differences than their predecessors — a factor he said is driving greater openness to international marriage.

Beyond matchmaking services, he said there are also cases where people find a partner and eventually marry while working and living abroad.

"The number of people getting jobs in Japan and marrying Japanese nationals has increased," Kim said. "In those cases, employment, romance and marriage are all taken care of at once."

Official statistics reflect the shift. According to marriage and divorce data from the Ministry of Statistics, marriages between Korean men and Japanese women reached 1,176 in 2024, up 40.2 percent from the previous year — the highest figure in the past decade.

International marriages overall are also on the rise. Unions involving a foreign national totaled about 21,000 in 2024, a 5.3 percent increase from the year before. Total marriages that year came to 222,000, up 14.8 percent year-on-year, marking a rebound from a prolonged decline.

Kim encouraged young people considering giving up on dating or marriage altogether to broaden their horizons.

"If you widen your perspective, there is no need to limit yourself to Korea," he said. "Keep trying." His point was that standards for choosing a spouse — such as financial standing or housing conditions — can differ abroad from those in Korea, and there is no reason to rule out marriage from the outset.

However, conditions and values surrounding marriage vary too widely across nationalities and genders to generalize about international unions. Practical considerations distinct from domestic marriage — including language, culture, family relationships, country of residence and financial arrangements — also need to be weighed carefully.

Meanwhile, a recent survey found that the share of unmarried young Koreans who want to get married has also edged up.

In the third National Population Behavior Survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in September last year, covering 2,050 men and women aged 20 to 44 nationwide, 60.8 percent of unmarried men and 47.6 percent of unmarried women said they intended to marry — up 2.3 percentage points and 3.0 percentage points, respectively, from the previous year.

Among those who said they had no intention of marrying or had not yet decided, the reasons differed by gender. For men, "the financial burden of married life" was the top response at 24.5 percent, while for women, "not having met someone who meets my expectations" accounted for the largest share at 18.3 percent.

The overall marriage count has also been recovering since 2022. After falling from about 320,000 in 2013 to 192,000 in 2022, the number climbed to 194,000 in 2023 and 222,000 in 2024.

Recovery has been particularly strong among Koreans in their early 30s, the age group with the highest marriage rates. As more young people express a desire to marry, the ways and settings in which they meet potential partners are also becoming more varied.


rainbow@heraldcorp.com