A study commissioned by the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society found that a growing number of young South Koreans view having children without getting married positively.

According to the study by the Korean Women's Development Institute, the proportion of men in their 20s supporting childbirth without marriage rose from 32-point-four percent in 2008 to 43-point-one percent in 2024, and among women in their 20s from 28-point-four percent to 42-point-four percent.

Among men in their 30s, the ratio jumped from 28-point-seven percent to 43-point-three percent, and from 23-point-nine percent to 40-point-seven percent among women in their 30s.

Eighty-one-point-one percent of men in their 20s positively considered couples living together without tying the knot last year, up from 67-point-two percent in 2008, and 81 percent of women in their 20s, up from 55-point-six percent.

Similar increases were reported among people in their 30s, 58 to 82-point-two percent among men and 50-point-one to 78-point-three percent among women.

Despite the changing views, the rate of childbirth without marriage in South Korea, four-point-seven percent as of 2023 remains far below the OECD average of 41 percent as of 2022.