Brides Older Than Grooms in 1 Out of 7 Marriages
By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Park Jun-ho, an office worker, is three years younger than his wife. It didn't matter to him as he had friends who are younger than their wives, just like him, but his mother didn't like it.
"At first, she even wanted to hide the fact to our relatives," said the 34-year-old father of a baby girl.
The man being at least a couple of years older than his wife was typical of couples here, but the tradition seems to be changing. An increasing number of men are marrying females older than themselves.
According to Statistics Korea, the bride was older than the groom for one out of seven couples who tied the knot last year. This was true for 33,794, or 14.3 percent, of the 236,677 couples who married for the first time last year.
This is the biggest ratio since 1990 when the statistical office started compiling such data. It recorded 8.8 percent in 1990.
Couples where the bride and the groom were of the same age totaled 38,109, or 16.1 percent of the total, while the typical pattern of the man being older than the woman stood at 69.6 percent, the lowest ever.
The trend was also notable in remarriages. The brides were older one out of five times.
The statistical office said that the low birth rate has caused more men to marry older females. It has become increasingly difficult for men to find spouses from age groups younger than themselves as the female population in the younger group is smaller than that of the male group looking to settle down.
The problem is expected to become more serious.
According to the Gyeonggido Family and Women's Research Institute, the number of males aged between 29 and 33, the common age men get married, is estimated to be 1.9 million in 2014, which will be 381,300 more than females in the age range of 26 to 30, the average age females wed.
It means two out of 10 men won't be able to find a mate if they look only for women a few years younger than themselves.
The weakening of the traditional patriarchal culture has also led to more couples taking untraditional routes. In a survey of 1,200 singles by Duo, a matchmaking company, seven out of 10 said age didn't matter when choosing a mate. When asked why they prefer older women, males said they were mature, considerate and equal in status as reasons.