Young People Fear Huge Marriage Costs

Male university students estimate the overall cost of getting married at W108.14 million, but their female counterparts put it at W59.74 million, setting the stage for trouble ahead (US$1=W1,028).

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According to a recent study by Yoo Gye-sook, a professor at Kyunghee University based on a straw poll of university students at 13 universities in Seoul who intended to get married, respondents varied widely in their expectations of marriage costs, from W1 million to W600 million. The average overall was 83.68 million.

The average age when they expected to get married was 30.63 years for men and 28.9 years for women.

"Those who expected the cost of marriage to be higher tended to think they would get married at a later age", Yoo said.

"Unless the issues of the high cost of marriage, unequal distribution of cost between men and women, and the culture of conspicuous consumption are addressed, we will not be able to solve the problem of the low birthrate and late marriage".