More young Koreans ready to accept nonmarital births: report

TV personality Sayuri Fujita, right, spends time with her son in this May 2022 photo. In 2020, she gave birth after receiving a sperm donation, choosing to become a mother without getting married. Captured from Fujita’s Instagram

In 2019, Sayuri Fujita, a TV personality based in Korea, visited a gynecologist and was told that natural pregnancy would not be possible for her.

Wanting to have children, the Japanese national saw two options: rush into marriage with someone she didn’t truly love and pursue in vitro fertilization or have a child through sperm donation without getting married.

She chose the latter.

In 2020, Fujita gave birth to a son, becoming one of the first public figures in Korea to openly challenge social norms around nonmarital childbirth. Her decision once seemed radical to Korean society — but that’s beginning to change.

In fact, social acceptance of nonmarital childbirth is growing steadily among young adults in Korea, according to a recent study.

Support for nonmarital childbirth among women in their 20s increased from 28.4 percent to 42.4 percent, according to the Korea Women’s Development Institute (KWDI). The institute analyzed Statistics Korea data on attitudes toward marriage and family, collected from individuals aged 13 and older between 2008 and 2024.

Among men in the same age group, the figure rose from 32.4 percent to 43.1 percent over the same period.

Acceptance of nonmarital childbirth also rose significantly among those in their 30s. For men, the acceptance rate rose from 28.7 percent to 43.3 percent, while for women, it climbed from 23.9 percent to 40.7 percent.

A nurse cares for newborns in a neonatal unit at a hospital in Incheon, Feb. 26. Newsis

Acceptance for nonmarital cohabitation also rose sharply. Among men in their 20s, approval increased from 67.2 percent to 81.1 percent. Women in the same age group showed an even steeper rise — from 55.6 percent to 81.0 percent — signaling a broader shift in attitudes.

A similar trend was seen among people in their 30s, with support for nonmarital cohabitation rising from 58 percent to 82.2 percent among men, and from 50.1 percent to 78.3 percent among women.

The KWDI noted that while acceptance rates for nonmarital cohabitation and childbirth are higher among men than women — and higher among people in their 20s than those in their 30s in most cases — the gap between these groups is narrowing steadily.

As social acceptance grows, the government is considering policy measures to support nonmarital childbirth in response to the country’s low birthrate. Korea’s total fertility rate was 0.75 last year — less than half the OECD average of 1.51 in 2022.

Citing the country’s low birthrate, First Vice Health and Welfare Minister Lee Ki-il said Korea has “no reason to be selective about the means” when it comes to boosting birthrates.

“The rise in women’s acceptance of nonmarital childbirth may reflect the appeal of avoiding pressures from in-laws and traditional expectations around marriage,” he said.

He added that the government plans to address the low birthrate by introducing measures supporting nonmarital childbirth in areas such as inheritance and tax deductions.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea’s nonmarital birthrate stood at 3.9 percent in 2022 — far below the OECD average of 41 percent that year. France had the highest share of births to unmarried mothers at 65.2 percent, followed by Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Korea’s nonmarital birthrate rose slightly to 4.7 percent in 2023, the highest on record.