2026
Gap between Marriage and Fertility Desires in Korea
Most people across the world want to get married and have children, and typically these go hand in hand. It’s no surprise, then, that countries that have greater marriage aspirations also see greater shares who want to have children. But in some countries the overlap between desiring married life and desiring parenthood is smaller than in others. In the 2026 IFS-Wheatley Survey of Family Culture, the country with the widest gap between marriage and children is Korea, where 76% of young adults are married or want to marry but only 48% want or have kids. This may be due to Korea having arguably the most intense tutoring and school culture in the world; children in Korea are increasingly seen as a luxury. This intensity surrounding parenting may explain why marriage and fertility come apart among Koreans.
