What do you think about ”unmarried childbirth”? 43% of people in their 20s say it's ”possible” - Korean report

It turns out that two out of five people in their 20s think that "it is possible to have a child without getting married." Compared to 10 years ago, the perception of "non-marital childbirth" has become more positive, but in reality,
According to the 2024 Social Survey by the Korea National Statistical Office, 42.8% of people aged 20 to 29 this year said they would be able to have children without getting married.
Ten years ago, 30.3% of people answered in favor of "childbirth outside of marriage," but in the latest survey, this had increased by 12.5%. The percentage of people who answered that they were against it was 30.3% in 2014.
This was down from 4.9% to 22.2% this time. By gender, 43.1% of men in their 20s and 42.4% of women in their 20s said they could have children without getting married, showing almost no gender difference.
The number of women who answered that they completely agreed (15.9%) was greater than that of men (12.6%). As the number of people who were in favor of having a child outside of marriage increased, the number of people who felt that they had to get married also increased.
The percentage of people in their 20s who answered that they "must" or "should" get married has increased from 51.2% in 2014 to 20.4% in 2024.
The number of people who agreed with the idea that "if you get married, you have to have children" dropped to 39.7%. 51.3% of people in their 20s agreed, almost unchanged from 51.5% in 2018 when the survey first began.
When asked how many children they would ideally like to have, 60.4% answered "2," 30.2% answered "1," and only 5.2% answered "0."
The changing perception of young people towards non-marital childbirth is also reflected in actual birth rate statistics. Last year's birth rate statistics showed that there were 10,900 non-marital births, the lowest since statistics began in 1981.
This is in contrast to the overall number of births, which fell 7.7% from the previous year to 230,000, a record low.
The number of unmarried births is expected to increase each year, reaching 6,900 in 2020, 7,700 in 2021, and 9,800 in 2022.
It has been analyzed that this reflects social phenomena such as the increase in common-law marriages without filing marriage registrations and unmarried cohabitation, as well as a change in young people's perceptions of childbirth out of wedlock.
Despite the rapid change in rates and perceptions of non-marital childbirth, policy moves to institutionalize and support it remain slow.
The government's Committee on Low Birthrates and Aging published "Measures to Reverse the Trend of Low Birthrates" in June and July, which called for the balancing of work and family life, childcare, and housing.
The government announced comprehensive support measures for the issue, but there was no provision for institutionalizing or supporting non-marital childbirth.
However, we are not yet at the stage where we can present specific measures."