In the mood for love… but not marriage
In China, Taiwan and South Korea, where marriage and fertility rates have plummeted to record lows, anxious parents, concerned city officials and shrewd businesses are going to great lengths to match singles up
SEOUL – As father to two daughters in their 30s who are still single, Mayor Shin Sang-jin of South Korean city Seongnam cannot help but worry about them.
“My elder daughter is too busy working. Even though she wants to get married, she has no chance to meet people. Seeing the situation she is in, I felt that opportunities need to be created,” he told The Straits Times.
The mayor decided to play matchmaker for singles like his daughters, and an event organised by the city government called Solomon’s Choice was born. The title is a play on the word “solo”, which refers to singletons in South Korea.
The event, held in two instalments on July 2 and 9, took place in fancy hotels and featured wine tasting and activities based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality tests.
Both were hits, drawing more than 1,000 applicants for 200 spots over the two weekends and resulting in 39 matches.
Other cities in South Korea are also pulling out the stops to match singles, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and YouTube, and even dangling cash incentives.
The situation is dire. With a record low rate of 3.7 marriages for every 1,000 people last year – down from 6.5 in 2012 – and a declining fertility rate that was the world’s lowest at 0.78 last year, the country faces an uphill task in stopping population decline that started in 2021.
South Korea’s fertility rate in 2022 was its lowest
If nothing changes, its current 52 million population is expected to drop to 38 million by 2070.