Is Divorce Proportional to Age? ... Couples Married Over 20 Years Separate Less Often

Domestic Divorces Fall Below 100,000 for the First Time in 25 Years
'Low-Years Couples' Divorce Rate Remains High

In recent years, the number of divorces in South Korea has been on the decline. While so-called "late-life divorces" among couples married for over 20 years have decreased, divorces among couples married for less than 10 years have been on the rise.

According to the "2022 Marriage and Divorce Statistics" released by Statistics Korea on the 18th, there were 93,000 divorces last year, down 8.3% (8,300 cases) from the previous year. This marks the third consecutive year of decline.

The annual number of divorces falling below 100,000 is the first time in 25 years since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial crisis in 1997 (91,000 cases). The number of divorces in South Korea reached 116,000 in 1998 when the IMF crisis impact intensified, peaking at 167,000 in 2003.

This is analyzed to be influenced by the continuous decrease in marriages. The number of marriages has declined for 11 consecutive years from 329,000 in 2011 to just 191,000 last year.

[Image source=Pixabay]

However, the divorce rate among couples married for 10 years or less did not significantly decrease despite the decline in the marrying population. The divorce rate for those married 4 years or less decreased by 9.3%, and for those married 5 to 9 years, it decreased by 3.5%.

Conversely, the longer the marriage duration, the lower the probability of divorce. The divorce rate for couples married over 20 years had steadily increased without decline since 2016, but last year it dropped by 13.1% for the first time in 7 years. The largest decrease was seen in the 20?24 years group (-14.0%), followed by 25?29 years (-13.4%) and 30 years or more (-12.4%).

This phenomenon is also analyzed as younger couples, or "low-year couples," having a more open and flexible attitude toward divorce. It means that younger generations are less resistant to divorce. In fact, a 2020 survey by Statistics Korea showed that the proportion of people who responded that "divorce should never happen for any reason" tended to increase with age.

Divorces among couples with minor children totaled 39,000 cases, accounting for 41.7% of all divorces, showing a continuous downward trend. The proportion of couples with one child was 22.1%, with two children 16.3%, and with three children 3.1%, indicating that the number of children significantly influenced the divorce rate.

Conversely, the proportion of couples without minor children was 54.9%, an increase of 7.9 percentage points compared to 10 years ago. The rise in couples without children due to declining birth rates also appears to be affecting divorces among low-year couples.