{
  "id": 18254474,
  "title": "Multicultural marriages in Korea edge down in 2025",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/05/multicultural-marriages-in-korea-edge-down-in-2025",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-05T05:32:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20261105/multicultural-marriages-in-s-korea-edge-down-in-2025"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Korea saw a slight decline in multicultural marriages in 2025, according to data released Thursday, with the figure dropping to 8.9 percent of all marriages. This marked an 8.0 percent decrease year-over-year, from 21,450 in 2024 to 21,399 in 2025, as reported by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.\n\nThe majority of multicultural marriages involved foreign wives, accounting for 71.4 percent of such unions. Foreign husbands made up 18.9 percent of multicultural marriages, while those with naturalized citizens constituted 9.7 percent. The average age of husbands at first marriage stood at 37.1 years, while wives were younger, with an average age of 29.7 years. In 75.2 percent of multicultural marriages, the husband was older than the wife, and in 36.1 percent of cases, the age gap between spouses was at least 10 years.\n\nVietnamese women were the most common foreign brides, accounting for 25.3 percent of multicultural marriages, followed by Chinese wives at 15.1 percent and Thai wives at 9.2 percent. The age gaps were most prominent in marriages with Vietnamese wives, with 6.8 percent of husbands being foreign nationals from the United States, 5.6 percent from China, and 3.6 percent from Vietnam.",
  "summary": "The number of multicultural marriages in Korea edged down in 2025 from a year earlier, data showed Thursday, taking up 8.9 percent of all marriages. The country recorded 21,399 multicultural marriages last year, down 0.2 percent, or 51, from 21,450 in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Marriages involving foreign wives accounted for 71.4 percent of multicultural…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Yonhap News",
        "title": "Multicultural marriages in S. Korea edge down in 2025",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/05/multicultural-marriages-in-s-korea-edge-down-in-2025",
        "published": "2026-11-05T03:00:03.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}