There Is a Reason for Many Single Men... Unmarried Men Outnumber Unmarried Women by 20%

35-Year-Old Unmarried Rate: Men 46.5%, Women 29.1%

The number of unmarried men was found to be about 20% higher than that of unmarried women. The gender imbalance among unmarried men and women is at a serious level. The situation is particularly severe in non-metropolitan areas. It is analyzed that this is influenced by the long-standing situation where male births have outnumbered female births due to past son preference ideologies.

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According to the Health and Welfare Issue & Focus (No. 449) titled "Gender Imbalance in Birth Ratios and Marriage Ratios in Korea," released by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) on the 17th, as of 2021, the number of unmarried men nationwide was 19.6% higher than that of unmarried women. This means that even if as many unmarried men and women as possible are matched, there will still be a surplus of unmarried men. Demographically, this shows that unmarried men are at a disadvantage compared to unmarried women when it comes to marriage.

This imbalance was more pronounced in non-metropolitan areas than in the metropolitan area. The excess ratio of unmarried men exceeded 30% in Gyeongbuk (34.9%), Gyeongnam (33.2%), and Chungbuk (31.7%). In contrast, Seoul showed a lower rate than the average at 2.5%, and Busan also showed a relatively low level at 16.2%.

The imbalance in marriage gender ratios also appeared in the difference in unmarried rates between men and women. As of 2020, the unmarried rate for those born in 1985 (aged 35 at the time) was 46.5% for men and 29.1% for women, with men being 17.4 percentage points higher than women.

The reason why the gender imbalance among unmarried men and women is so large is analyzed to be because the number of male births has exceeded female births for nearly 30 years. The birth sex ratio, which refers to the number of male births per 100 female births, is considered normal in the range of 103 to 107. However, Korea's birth sex ratio began to exceed the natural ratio from the 1970s and maintained a large gap from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.

The reasons for the higher number of male births include son preference ideology, increased desire for gender selection of children due to the rapid decline in fertility rates (family planning projects), and the availability of technologies such as ultrasound examinations that enable gender selection of children. The birth sex ratio returned to within the natural range starting from 2007.

Accordingly, the imbalance in marriage gender ratios appeared in the early 1990s and worsened further after the mid-2000s. The report explained, "The birth sex ratio exceeded the natural ratio for more than 30 years since 1970," and "When this generation reached reproductive age, it had a significant impact on the marriage gender ratio." It added, "The regions where the marriage gender imbalance is particularly severe are characterized by having a much more imbalanced birth sex ratio in the 1980s and 1990s compared to other regions."

Meanwhile, according to the "2023 Marriage and Divorce Statistics" released by Statistics Korea in March, the number of marriages last year was 194,000, an increase of 1.0% (2,000 cases) compared to the previous year. This is the first slight increase after 11 consecutive years of decline since 2012, which is analyzed to be due to marriages postponed because of COVID-19 being concentrated in the first quarter of last year.