South Korea’s population may have peaked in 2018 at 51.6 million, up a marginal 0.37 percent from a year ago, as the country faces a rapidly aging population with the senior age group outnumbering the youth and the fertility rate hovering in the zero territory.

The median age in Korea was 42.6, with seniors aged 65 and older making up 14.3 percent of the total population compared with 12.9 percent for youth aged 14 and younger, according to Statistics Korea`s census report on Friday.

The total fertility rate hit a record low of 0.98, falling in the zero range for the first time.

The number of marriages stood at 258,000, down from 327,000 in 2012 to mark its seventh straight year of decline. The average age of first marriage was 33.2 for men and 30.4 for women, up 0.3 and 0.2, respectively, from a year earlier. The average age of first birth for women was also up 0.2 at 31.6.

The most common family arrangement in 2017 was a married couple living with their unmarried children, accounting for 44.8 percent of all Korean families. Married couples made up 22.7 percent and one-parent households with kids 14.6 percent.

Meanwhile the average household size was 2.47 persons, down from last year’s 2.51. This was largely due to the growing number of single and two-person households, whose proportion was 28.6 percent and 26.7 percent, up 0.7 percentage point and 0.5 percentage point, respectively.

More Koreans now view marriage as a choice not an obligation. Those who believe that “marriage is a must” slipped to 48.1 percent while those that were okay about “living together without getting married” rose to 56.4 percent.

Women were more likely to be anti-marriage, with 36.3 percent of single men wanting to get married compared with only 22.4 percent of single females.

By Kim Yeon-joo and Kim Hyo-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]