The Korea Development Institute released a study on the reasons for Korea's decreasing birth rate and found that the number of women delaying or foregoing marriage has been increasing steadily since the 1990s.

It found that higher education levels in women was partly responsible for the trend as women with more schooling had a lower chance of getting married by as much as 8 percent.

A bigger paycheck lowered the rate by another 45 percentage points.

Other factors such as the high cost of housing and children's education were also shown to make marriage less attractive, further lowering the marriage, and subsequently, birth rates.

Arirang News