"Appearance, Wealth, and Education All Considered"... More Marriage Information Agencies Have Increased

"Natural Encounters Becoming Difficult, Number of Agencies Increasing"
Marriage Counseling Centers 1,841... 17%↑ Compared to 2019
However, Number of Marriages and Wedding Venues Showing Declining Trend

The number of marriage information agencies has sharply increased over the three years since the outbreak of COVID-19. In contrast, the number of marriages and wedding halls is on a declining trend.

According to the National Tax Service's top 100 lifestyle industry statistics on the 15th, as of February this year, there are 1,841 marriage consultation offices nationwide. This is a 17.1% increase compared to 2019 (1,572), before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Marriage consultation offices refer to businesses that provide services such as matchmaking for singles, marriage counseling, and purchasing and reservation agency services related to wedding preparations. The number had shown a stagnant or shrinking trend with 1,613 in 2017, 1,609 in 2018, and 1,572 in 2019.

However, in 2020, when COVID-19 occurred, the number rebounded by 2.5% to 1,611 compared to the same month the previous year. Since then, it has shown an increasing trend for three years with 1,684 in 2021, 1,723 in 2022, and 1,841 in 2023. It is also evaluated that marriage information agencies enjoyed a special demand during the COVID-19 situation. The analysis suggests that as natural encounters became difficult, cases of meeting by considering the background and conditions of the other party increased.

However, the increase in the number of marriage information agencies did not contribute to increasing the number of marriages. Last year, the number of marriages in South Korea was 191,690. Following 213,502 in 2020 and 192,507 in 2021, the number shows a decreasing trend.

The number of wedding halls has sharply declined since it was first recorded below 1,000 in 2019. The figures are 948 in 2019, 889 in 2020, 827 in 2021, 781 in 2022, and 747 in 2023.

This is analyzed as an effect of the decreasing number of people who feel the necessity of marriage itself. According to the 2022 Korean social indicators announced by Statistics Korea, responses to the question about views on marriage last year showed 15.3% answered "must do" and 34.8% answered "better to do."

In particular, looking only at the youth age group, 40.6% of those in their 20s and 42.3% of those in their 30s responded positively. Compared to the first survey conducted in 2008, the percentages for those in their 20s (62.0%) and 30s (60.8%) have each sharply decreased by more than 20 percentage points.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.