Credit: Public domain.
According to the recent report by the Bureau of Statistics 통계청, 10.6% of all marriages in South Korea in 2023 were international marriages. International marriages peaked at 10.3% in 2019, then dropped to 7.2% in 2021 due to COVID-related travel restrictions.
Among all international marriages, 69.8% involved a wife who is not Korean. In 76.1% of all international marriages, the husband was older, with 38.1% involving husbands older by a decade or more, reflecting the tendency for older, rural men to find wives from Southeast Asia who are willing to relocate to South Korea. Among non-Korean wives, 27.9% were from Vietnam, 17.4% were from China, and 9.9% were from Thailand.