More bachelors marrying divorcees

By Kang Seung-woo

A beauty pageant-runner up-turned-announcer recently wowed people, as she has remarried a bachelor, making her an object of envy among a lot of females.

However, a report by the nation’s statistics office shows that this is no longer something to draw jealousy any more, as the number of couples comprised of single men and divorced females has sharply increase thanks to the rise in the latter’s social position and changing thoughts about women.

According to Statistics Korea, Tuesday, marriage between bachelors and divorced woman stood at 2.3 percent in 1990, but the ratio nearly tripled to 6.1 percent in 2009.

It is a huge growth in that it was rare in the past that they ended up married due to strong opposition, mainly from the men.

During the same span, divorced man-single woman couples just rose from 3.6 percent to 4.5 percent.

Observers say that women’s heightened social status and the diffusion of gender equality issues have influenced the trend.

“Nowadays, a large number of single men do not care about their spouses’ past as much as before,” said an official of a local matchmaking company.

“In addition, divorcees who possess social and economic status do not feel shameful about dating single men.”

Women are found to marry again at a faster pace than men after divorce, the report noted.

The number of second marriages for women recorded 28,153, accounting for 7.1 percent of all marriages, in 1990, but it expanded to 58,825 in 2009 (19 percent), an 11.9 percentage points gain, compared with a 9 percentage points increase on the men’s side.

Meanwhile, Korea’s marriage rate has been on the decline due to a decrease in the numbers of younger people.

The number of marriages totaled 399,312 in 1990, but dropped to 309,759 in 2009.

The report also showed that the ratio of the couple’s first wedding has dipped, while that of marriage between divorcees advanced.

First marriage couples represented 76.5 percent of all marriage in 2009, down from 89.3 percent in 1990 and divorced pairs accounted for 12.8 percent in 2009, up from 4.7 percent in 1990.