Last year, one out of every 10 couples who got married in Korea was found to be multicultural. While the total number of marriages is on the decline in Korea, the number of multicultural marriages is rebounding, and the proportion of multicultural couples is on the uptick.
The number of multicultural marriages between Koreans and foreigners in 2022 was 17,428, an increase of 25.1 percent compared to a year ago, according to 2022 multicultural population statistics released by Statistics Korea on Nov. 29. The increase was the largest since the collection of such statistics began in 2008.
The proportion of multicultural marriages to the total number of marriages in Korea climbed to 9.1 percent, or about 1 in 10 married couples in 2022. The proportion of multicultural marriages among all marriages fell from 11.2 percent in 2008 to 7.4 percent in 2015, reaching 10.3 percent in 2019 and recording 7.6 percent and 7.2 percent in 2020 and 2021, respectively. As the number of marriages plummeted, the proportion of multicultural couples among newlyweds relatively rose.
In multicultural marriages, Korean husbands and foreign wives accounted for 66.8 percent of the total, and Korean wives and foreign husbands 20.0 percent. The percentage of marriages with naturalized persons stood at 13.2 percent.