Couples Rush to Get Married After Lockdown

A 13-month decline of the marriage rate has come to a halt as many couples are impatient to tie the knot after the coronavirus epidemic kept them apart.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, 15,861 couples tied the knot in April, up 1.2 percent on-year. Marriages rebounded for the first time since March last year, but still only because numbers last April were so low in the early stages of the epidemic.

In real terms the April figure is still 20 percent lower than the same month two years ago, when 20,026 couples tied the knot.

Only 22,820 babies were born this April, down 501 from a year earlier, while 25,087 people died, up 411 and outnumbering newborns by 2,267.

The population decline continues as there have been more deaths than births for 18 months running.