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By Kang Seung-woo
COVID-19 has had an influence on dating, marriage and childbirth, a study showed on Thursday, as pandemic-caused social distancing prevents people from meeting and starting relationships, and thus reduces the marriage rate and birthrate.
The research by Choi Seul-ki, a professor at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management, and Kye Bong-oh, a professor of sociology at Kookmin University, was based on interviews with 2,000 adults between the ages of 25 and 49.
Among the 602 adults in the survey who are single, 78.1 percent have not gone on a blind date since the outbreak of the coronavirus in February last year. Also, 48.7 percent of those surveyed said that the frequency of getting new dates has fallen compared with the pre-pandemic era, with only 0.5 percent saying that it has increased.
The study also found that the pandemic greatly affected perspectives on marriage among women, with 20.7 percent saying they were more reluctant to marry after the virus outbreak, compared with the 5.9 percent of female respondents who say they want to get married more now. On the other hand, there was no huge gap among men, with 10.3 percent saying they wanted to get married more now, compared with 10.9 percent who are more reluctant to marry now.
"The finding is due to women struggling more than men to find jobs during the pandemic," Choi said.
Couples without kids were also found to have pushed back their plans to have children due to the pandemic, as 42 percent of women and 34.7 percent of men said they had no plans to have children over the next two years.
