`혼자가 좋아요`…결혼은 줄고 결혼 시기도 늦춰져<br /><br />A new comprehensive government report sheds light on lifestyle and demographic trends among South Korean women, a greater number of whom than ever before are living alone.<br />More women are choosing to work rather than get married and start a family.<br />For those who do have families and want to work at the same time, childcare needs mean they aren't able to work as much.<br />Eum Ji-young has the details.<br />In South Korea, the number of women living alone last year rose by about 40 percent compared to ten years ago... to a total of three-million 94-thousand.<br />That's according to a report on the lives of women in South Korea, released jointly on Wednesday by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.<br />According to the report, the number of first marriages last year was 184-thousand, a figure that's also been decreasing for 10 consecutive years. The average age at which a woman gets married for the first time was 30-point-6.<br />Men got married on average three years later.<br />"The number of first marriages has been decreasing because the perception that married life is good... is changing,... and more women have been participating in the economy."<br />The number of births last year came to 303-thousand,... down 32 percent since 2009. Baby girls accounted for 49 percent of them.<br />In the first half of this year, the number of women working fewer hours due to childcare increased dramatically due to COVID-19.<br />At around six-thousand nine-hundred, it was far higher than the figure for men.<br />On the bright side, life expectancy continues to rise.<br />Life expectancy for girls born in 2018 was almost 86 years, an increase of 1.5 years since 2012. There was a gap of about 6 years between men and women.<br />However, the average age people consider themselves healthy has been falling for both genders.<br />More time spent in the hospital in their later years has apparently reduced their perceived quality of life.<br />The report also said that in the National Assembly women were 19 percent of the representatives... and accounted for one third of government ministers.<br />Eum Ji-young Arirang News.<br />
