By Kim Jae-heun
Amid growing interracial marriages in Korea, Chinese spouses were found to be the most sought-after as of the first half of the year, according to the Ministry of Justice, Wednesday.
The ministry, in cooperation with the Korean Immigration Service, released a report on the nationality of foreign spouses which indicated 12,356 Korean women married Chinese men, followed by Americans at 2,618 and Vietnamese at 1,955. Japanese at 1,299 and Canadians at 1,114 rounded out the top five.
For men, Chinese women topped the list as 45,521 tied the knot with them, followed by 39,506 Vietnamese and 12,304 Japanese. Filipinas ranked fourth with 11,506 and Cambodians were fifth with 4,247.
Most of the foreign spouses ranged in age from 30 to 34, followed by those between 35 to 39 years old and between 25 and 29.
Also, most of the interracial couples reside in Gyeonggi Province with 44,056, followed by 27,571 couples living in Seoul and 10,250 in South Gyeongsang Province.
The number of foreign spouses increased by 12.2 percent from 125,087 in 2009 to 142,654 in 2010 to surpassing the 150,000 mark for the first time in 2013, but since then, the annual growth rate has been declining.