Seoul, March 20 : The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign spouses rose for the third consecutive year in 2024, data showed Thursday.

The number of multicultural marriages reached 20,759 last year, up 1,042 from the previous year's 19,717 cases, according to the data from Statistics Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.

The number of international marriages sharply declined to around 15,000 in 2020 from about 24,000 the previous year and slid further to around 13,000 in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the figure rebounded to 16,666 cases in 2022.

Of the total marriages in South Korea last year, multicultural marriages accounted for 9.3 per cent, down from 10.1 per cent the previous year.

Vietnamese women comprised the largest share of all foreign wives at 32.1 per cent, followed by Chinese women at 16.7 per cent and Thai women at 13.7 per cent. Among foreign husbands, those from the United States accounted for 28.9 per cent, followed by those from China at 17.6 per cent and Vietnam at 15 per cent.

The number of divorces among multicultural couples decreased by 1.4 per cent year-on-year, totaling 6,022 in 2024, according to the data.

Meanwhile, the number of babies born in South Korea increased for the first time in nine years in 2024, driven by a post-pandemic rise in marriages, evolving attitudes toward parenthood, and demographic changes, as per the statistics agency.

A total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6 per cent from a record low of 230,000 in 2023, Yonhap reported. The figure has been declining since 2015, when it stood at 438,400.

The total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, also rebounded for the first time in nine years, reaching 0.75 in 2024, up from 0.72 tallied a year earlier.

/IANS