2024 Marriage Perception Survey... Average 83.4 Million KRW
Most Respondents Say 'Adjust to the Limit' if Insufficient
A survey revealed that men expect their future wives to have about 60 million KRW, while women expect their future husbands to have about 100 million KRW as marriage funds.
Marriage information company Gayun recently conducted the "2024 Marriage Perception Survey" targeting 500 unmarried men and women aged 25 to 39 (250 men and 250 women each) and released the results on the 3rd.
In the survey, the average desired budget for the question "How much should your prospective spouse have prepared?" was approximately 83.4 million KRW.
By age group, the average was about 81 million KRW for those in their 20s and about 85.7 million KRW for those in their 30s.
The difference by gender showed that men’s desired amount was about 1.6 times higher than women’s. Women hoped for men to have 103 million KRW, while men hoped for women to have 63.8 million KRW as marriage funds.
When the marriage budget was less than expected, 40.8% responded that they would proceed with the wedding within the saved budget limit. 26.8% said they would postpone the wedding until they saved more, 16.2% said they would cover the shortfall with a loan, 11.2% said they would receive support from both sets of parents, and 3.8% said they would give up on marriage altogether.
A Gayun representative stated, “The traditional culture where men prepare the house and women prepare the wedding items is no longer common these days, and many couples now share expenses together. We recommend setting the burden ratio and priorities according to each person’s situation without conforming to others’ standards.”
Meanwhile, according to a report published last year by the Statistics Development Institute of Statistics Korea in "Social Trends in Korea 2023," positive attitudes toward marriage among young people in their 20s and 30s have steadily declined since 2008.
In response to the question "What do you think about marriage?" the percentage of people in their 20s who answered "It must be done" or "It is better to do it" dropped by 30 percentage points from 71.9% in 2008 to 41.9% last year. During the same period, the percentage for those in their 30s decreased by 21 percentage points from 69.7% to 48.7%.
In particular, the proportion of those who viewed marriage negatively due to lack of marriage funds such as wedding expenses or housing preparation was higher among those in their 20s at 32.7% and those in their 30s at 33.7% compared to other age groups.
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