18% of babies born from premarital pregnancies: report

By Chyung Eun-ju, Park Si-soo

Nearly one in five first-born children in 2015 was born from premarital pregnancies, according to a report.

The report showed women in their early 20s were most vulnerable to premarital pregnancies -- 30.5 percent of first-born children of mothers aged between 20 and 24 were conceived before marriage. The ratio fell to 23.4 percent among teenage mothers and to 15.4 percent for mothers in their late 20s.

Researcher Lee Byung-ho at the Gyeonggi Research Center conducted the survey based on state data on babies born in 2015.

The report showed premarital pregnancies are increasing. In 2001, only 7.5 percent of newborn babies were conceived before their parents’ marriage. It jumped to 17.8 percent in 2015.