The number of couples getting married in South Korea increased by almost 15% between 2023 and 2024. That's the biggest percentage increase in marriages since the government began collecting this data in 1970. More than 222,000 couples got married in South Korea in 2024. That's good news for a country with one of the world's lowest birth rates. The government has been trying to encourage people to get married and have children to help boost the country's shrinking population. It may just have worked. However, not all young people are convinced that marriage is the right thing for them. According to The South China Morning Post, many young people in the country are still choosing an "unmarried lifestyle" for personal and financial reasons. Some said that getting married and doing things like buying a home and having children are too expensive. Others felt they would be more likely to find happiness on their own. The government data also showed that the number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign nationals has increased for the third year in a row. There were almost 21,000 of these marriages last year. That's an increase of more than 1,000 from 2023, although still not quite as high as it was before the coronavirus pandemic. Almost three out of 10 foreign husbands were from the US. And about a third of foreign wives were from Vietnam, while many others were from China and Thailand. The number of divorces among couples of different nationalities also decreased last year, according to Yonhap News Agency.