Seoul, Sept. 7 -- South Korea has seen marriages fall by nearly half and births shrink to just one-third of their 1995 levels, even as marriages with foreign spouses have risen by more than 50 percent, new government data shows.

On Wednesday, Statistics Korea released the "Changes in Marriage and Births Over the Past 30 Years" report, highlighting how deeply the country's family patterns have shifted.

The findings point to fewer marriages for people in their 20s, later childbirths, a rise in international marital unions and the lowest fertility rate among advanced economies.

The crude marriage rate declined from 8.7 per 1,000 people in 1995 to 4.4 in 2024. Total marriages peaked at 434,900 in 1996, then fell steadily to a low of 191,70...