Children born to multicultural families accounted for 6 out of 100 births, a record high. On the other hand, as it became difficult to move between countries in the aftermath of COVID-19 last year, the number of multicultural marriages decreased significantly.

Multicultural Birth

According to the 'Multicultural Population Dynamics' released by the National Statistical Office on the 8th, out of 272,337 births last year, 16,421 were born to multicultural families. The number of children born to multicultural families decreased by 1518 from 2019. After peaking at 22,908 in 2012, it is on a declining trend every year. The number of multicultural marriages increased until 2019, before COVID-19, but births have reversed the trend of increasing marriages.

However, the proportion of multicultural children among all births rose to 6%. The rate of decline in the domestic fertility rate has only increased as the rate of decline has accelerated. 6% is the highest since 2008 when multicultural demographic statistics were compiled. By nationality, the most common case was that the mother of the child was from Vietnam (38.8%). It was followed by China (17.7%), the Philippines (6%) and Thailand (4.2%).

Multicultural Marriage

The number of multicultural marriages in 2020 was 16,177, down 34.6% from the previous year (24,721). This is due to restrictions on entry and exit due to the spread of COVID-19. This is the first time since 2008 that the number of multicultural marriages has fallen below 20,000. The share of multicultural marriages in all marriages last year also fell to 7.6%.

This figure has also been steadily increasing since 2015 (7.4% → 7.7% → 8.3% → 9.2% → 10.3%), but this time it was broken.

By marriage type, the marriage between a foreign wife and a Korean husband was the most at 66.4%. 18.7% of the husbands were foreigners, and 14.9% were married to Korean naturalized spouses.

The nationalities of foreigners and naturalized wives were Vietnam (23.5%), China (21.7%), Thailand (10.7%), Japan (4.7%), and the United States (2.9%). In 2010 alone, marriages to Thai women accounted for only 1.3% of the total, but the number has increased more than eightfold in 10 years. During the same period, the proportion of Chinese women decreased from 33.1% to 21.7%.

The average age of marriage for multicultural families based on first marriage is 36 for men and 29.2 for women. As the average age of wives from multicultural families has risen steadily since 2010, the average age gap between married couples last year was 6.8, the lowest ever.

The number of divorces from multicultural families stood at 8,685 last year, down 1,183 (12%) from the previous year. The share of multicultural families among all divorces also decreased by 0.7 percentage points from the previous year to 8.2%. Both the number and proportion of divorces are at an all-time low. The length of time a couple lasted until divorce was 8.9 years, more than double that of 2010 (4.7 years).

Kim Soo-young, head of the Population Trends Division at Statistics Korea, said, “The number of multicultural marriages seems to have plummeted as international exchanges and movement have decreased due to restrictions on entry and exit around the world due to the impact of COVID-19.”

Reporter Song Haseong