Divorces among long-married couples overtake early-marriage splits in S. Korea for first time
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Women’s higher levels of education and economic participation have reduced their financial dependence on their spouses, experts said of the rising trend of grey divorces.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH
SEOUL – Grey divorces among couples married for more than 30 years outnumbered divorces among couples married for less than five years in 2025, the first time this has happened since South Korea began compiling related data in 1990.
According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics on May 5, 15,628 couples who had been married for more than 30 years divorced in 2025, compared with 14,392 couples who divorced within five years of marriage.
When the data was first collected in 1990, divorces among couples married for less than five years stood at 18,053, vastly outnumbering grey divorces, which totalled just 368. Since then, grey divorces have gradually increased, while early-stage divorces have declined for six consecutive years since 2020.
The proportion of older women seeking legal divorce advice has also risen.
According to the Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations, women aged 60 or older accounted for more than 22 per cent of divorce-related legal consultations in February, nearly four times the roughly 6 per cent recorded in 2005.
Experts attribute the shift partly to South Korea’s changing demographics. The country’s rapidly ageing population has reduced the number of young married couples, while increasing the share of older couples in the population.
According to the ministry, people aged 50 or older accounted for 45.14 per cent of South Korea’s population in 2025, nearly double the 23.69 per cent recorded in 2005. Over the same period, the share of those in their 20s and 30s fell from 33.75 per cent to 25.37 per cent.
Longer life expectancy has also made more older couples willing to live independently later in life. Women’s higher levels of education and economic participation have also reduced their financial dependence on their spouses, experts said.
“The changing times and shifting values have created an environment in which older couples are less dependent on one another,” Mr Son Jung-hye, an attorney at law firm Hyemyung who specialises in family matters, told local media.
Analysts say rising housing prices may also be a factor behind the increase in grey divorces. As real estate values rise, the assets each spouse can receive through property division may also increase, reducing financial concerns that may previously have discouraged some older couples from divorcing. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
