A survey indicated that South Korean women expect their potential spouse to have amassed at least 100 million won ($73,400) worth of assets before getting married, while the men want their bride-to-be to have around 60 million.
Local matchmaking firm Gayeon asked 250 single women and 250 single men between the ages of 25 and 39 how much wealth they want their future spouses to have, to which the average reply for women was 103 million won and for men was 63.8 million won.
"Contrary to the tradition of men buying the home and women buying the household items, the current trend for (Korean couples) is to shoulder the costs of marriage with their combined wealth," said a manager from Gayeon, adding that there are no clear standard for marriage budgets among young couples.
The survey also asked what the respondents would do if they were under-budget for their marriage. The leading answer at 40.8 percent was "We'll keep the spending within our budget," followed by "We will postpone the wedding until we have enough," at 26.8 percent.
Another 16.2 percent said they will get a loan, while 11.2 percent said they will ask their parents for support. About 3.8 percent said they will not get married in such case.
According to Statistics Korea's 2023 report, the annual median income of a household where a person in their 20s is the primary income earner was 31.1 million won, as of 2022. Such households on average had an average of about 50.1 million won in debt.
The report also showed that the country's youth today are more negative toward marriage compared to in the past. About 41.9 percent of Korean men in their 20s wanted to get married in 2022, and the figure was even lower for Korean women at 27.5 percent.
In 2008, a full 71.9 percent of men and 52.9 percent of women in their 20s said they wanted to get married.
