South Korea records a slight decline in multicultural marriages in 2025 compared with the previous year, based on government data. The share of multicultural marriages remains at 8.9% of all marriages, with 21,399 such unions in 2025 versus 21,450 in 2024.
The reporting focuses on composition and demographics within these marriages. Across coverage, most multicultural marriages involve foreign wives (71.4%), followed by foreign husbands (18.9%) and marriages involving naturalized citizens (9.7%). The average age at first marriage is 37.1 years for husbands and 29.7 years for wives, and husbands are older than wives in 75.2% of cases. Vietnamese wives are the largest group (25.3%), followed by Chinese (15.1%) and Thai (9.2%). Husband origins cited include the United States, China and Vietnam, at 6.8%, 5.6% and 3.6%.
Yonhap and Korea Times both frame the trend as an “edge down” in 2025, with Korea Times adding more breakdown detail in its coverage while Yonhap follows the same core statistics.
