Couples Who Don't Own Their Home Have Fewer Kids

Couples who rent their home have fewer children than those who own it, statistics show. According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, as of Nov. 1, 2019, 1.26 million couples registered their marriage over the past five years, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier.

Of the 998,000 couples who married for the first time, 42.5 percent were childless, a 2.3 percentage points increase over the same period. But last year the proportion of childless couples was much bigger among those who did not own their own home at 46.8 percent, compared to 36.7 percent among homeowners. The rates were 44 percent and 35.2 percent the previous year.

As it becomes more difficult to buy a starter home, many couples feel they have to choose between a child and homeownership if they get married at all.

The proportion who bought a home in their first year of marriage plummeted from 32.5 percent in 2018 to 29.9 percent last year.

The average birthrate per couple who do not own their home was a mere 0.65, compared to 0.79 among homeowners.

The debts of newlyweds also increased. Some 85.8 percent of young couples were indebted to banks, up 0.7 percentage points on-year, mostly due to home loans, while the median value of their loan balance rose 12.1 percent to W112.08 million (US$1=W1,089).