Pandemic Casts Pall over May Weddings

The wedding month of May was a damp squib this year as the coronavirus pandemic continued to blight lives.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, only 16,153 couples tied the knot in the most popular month for weddings, down 11 percent on-year and the fewest since records began in 1981.

Even just a decade ago there were twice as many weddings.

The population decline also continued for the 19th month running as there were more deaths than births. Some 22,052 babies were born in May, down 3.5 percent on-year, but 25,571 people died, up five percent. That reduced the population by 12,824 people from January to May, faster than last year's 8,884.

The number of newborns for the whole year is expected to dwindle to 250,000, down more than 10,000 from last year.