Newlywed debt grows heavier, with 1 in 4 borrowers owing W300m: data

Nearly one in four newlywed couples with loans in South Korea owed at least 300 million won ($220,000) in 2024, more than four times the share eight years earlier, government data showed.

The figure rose from 5.3 percent in 2016 to 24 percent in 2024, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The data covers couples in their first marriage who had been married for no more than five years.

The median outstanding balance among those with loans reached 179 million won in 2024, up 5 percent from a year earlier and 130.1 percent from 77.78 million won in 2016.

The median reached 100 million won in 2018 and continued to climb, passing 150 million won in 2021 and 160 million won in 2022. By 2023, it had reached 170.51 million won.

The shift was also visible at the lower end of the loan range.

The share of indebted newlyweds owing less than 10 million won fell from 8.8 percent in 2016 to 4.6 percent in 2024. The share owing between 30 million won and less than 50 million won declined from 12.1 percent to 5.6 percent.

Newlyweds who owned a home were more likely to have large outstanding loans than those who did not. Among indebted homeowners, 33.2 percent owed at least 300 million won in 2024, compared with 16.7 percent of indebted couples without a home.

The median loan balance for homeowners was 228.24 million won, roughly double the 112 million won recorded in 2016.

For couples who did not own a home, the 2024 median was 141.6 million won.

Homeowners were also more likely to have additional loans. Some 90.9 percent of first-marriage newlyweds who owned a home had outstanding loans in 2024, compared with 84 percent of those without a home.

In Seoul, 31.4 percent of newlywed homeowners owned homes with a combined assessed value exceeding 600 million won in 2024. That figure measures the value of their homes, not the size of their loans.

Overall, 86.9 percent of first-marriage newlyweds had outstanding loans in 2024, down from 87.8 percent a year earlier.

The number of couples with loans fell from 675,558 to 657,622, even as the median balance among borrowers increased.

The figures do not show what individual loans were used for. The government’s measure includes household loans from financial institutions as well as business loans taken out by sole proprietors.