Benchmark
Koreans Are Reluctant to Get Married, Let Alone Have Babies
Expensive housing makes it hard to start a family.
Shoppers and pedestrians walk past stores in the Myeongdong shopping district in this photograph taken with a tilt-shift lens in Seoul, South Korea, on July 18, 2015.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
South Koreans are likely to have fewer weddings and babies this year than ever before, part of a demographic shift that risks hobbling the nation’s economy.
The number of marriages and births recorded during the first five months of 2016 hit the lowest levels for the same period in any year since the nation’s statistics office started compiling monthly data in 2000.