Marriages Hit 50-Year Low

The number of marriages dropped below 200,000 last year, the lowest in 50 years.

According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, 192,507 couples got married last year, down 20,995 or 9.8 percent from a year earlier and below 200,000 for the first time since records began in 1970.

The biggest group of brides and grooms were aged 30-34, followed by those in their late 20s and those in their late 30s.

As recently as the 1990s, most brides were in their 20s, but now women in their early 30s take up the largest proportion of brides as Koreans tie the knot later in life.

The trend of older women marrying younger men also continued, with 19.2 percent of couples who tied the knot for the first time last year, an increase of 2.2 times from 1990. The proportion of couples who were the same age stood at 16.6 percent.