One out of every 10 marriages last year was multicultural, the data showed. Multicultural marriages increased by 1,000 from the previous year, and more than two-thirds of them involved foreign wives. The share of multicultural births increased for the first time in 13 years since 2012.
The National Data Office on the 6th released the "2024 multicultural population dynamics statistics."
According to the statistics, there were 21,450 multicultural marriages last year, up 5.0% from a year earlier. However, the share of multicultural marriages among all marriages fell to 9.6% from 10.6% in 2023. That is because marriages between Koreans increased by a larger margin than multicultural marriages.
The most common type was Korean husband–foreign wife. Their share was 71.2%. Korean wife–foreign husband accounted for 18.2%, and naturalized citizens 10.6%. Among multicultural marriages, the average age of first-time husbands was 37.1, down 0.1 years from the previous year. Wives averaged 29.7, up 0.2 years in the same period.
In 76.2% of couples, the husband was older. Among all multicultural couples, 37.3% had a husband at least 10 years older. That was down 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier.
Multicultural births rebounded for the first time in 13 years since 2012. The number of multicultural births was 13,416, up 10.4% from the previous year. Multicultural births posted their first increase since 2012. The share of multicultural births among all births was 5.6%, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier.
By age of multicultural mothers, 33.9% of births were to those in their early 30s, 28.5% to those in their late 30s, and 18.6% to those in their late 20s. The average age at childbirth for mothers was 32.5, down 0.1 years from a year earlier. By mothers' nationality, Vietnam was highest at 30.0%, followed by China (12.2%) and Thailand (5.4%). Compared with the previous year, Vietnam rose 2.7 percentage points, while China and Thailand fell 2.0 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points, respectively.
Multicultural divorces totaled 7,992 last year, down 2.0% from a year earlier. Among all divorces, multicultural divorces accounted for 8.8%.
By type of multicultural divorce, Korean husband–foreign wife made up half at 49.9%. They were followed by naturalized citizens (34.0%) and Korean wife–foreign husband (16.1%). The average age at divorce for husbands in multicultural divorces was 50.5, and for wives 41.2. Compared with the previous year, husbands were up 0.2 years, and wives were down 0.1 years.
Their average length of marriage was 10.3 years, up 0.2 years from a year earlier. By nationality of wives in multicultural divorces, China accounted for 30.6%, Vietnam 27.4%, and Thailand 5.0%. Compared with the previous year, Vietnam (+1.0 percentage points) and Thailand (+0.3 percentage points) increased, while China (−1.5 percentage points) decreased.