The number of couples married for less than five years has dropped by a record margin last year. This is likely due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Statistics Korea on Monday, there were slightly over one-point-one million couples that were married for less than five years as of November 1, 2021, down seven percent on-year.

This is the biggest decline since the agency began compiling related data in 2015.

Fifty-four-point-nine percent of these newlyweds both worked. Dual-income couples earned on average eight-point-04 million won, one-point-seven times more than single-income couples.

A record low of 54-point-two percent of the couples had children, down one-point-three percentage points from a year earlier, while the average number of children also fell by zero-point-02 to a record low of zero-point-66.

Forty-nine-point-six percent of dual-income couples had children, compared to 60-point-five percent among single-income couples.