"What About the Parents' Retirement?"...Income and Occupation Alone Aren’t Enough as Young People's Marriage Criteria Change

Changing Marriage Criteria Amid Retirement Anxieties
Growing Fears Over Economic, Housing, and Pension Issues

Concerns about retirement in this super-aged society are now influencing the way young people view marriage. In addition to considering a partner's appearance, income, age, and family background, there is now a growing trend of evaluating whether the partner's parents are financially prepared for retirement as a condition for marriage.

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'Parents' Retirement' Emerges as a Condition for Marriage Among Young People...Family Financial Strength is Now Considered

According to the Future Korean Peninsula Population Institute (Hanmiyeon), a population think tank, on September 4, the institute analyzed 35,211 posts and comments related to retirement, pensions, and retirement age extension posted on the workplace community Blind between 2018 and 2025.

The analysis found that 37.7% of posts related to retirement also discussed topics of marriage and dating. In particular, posts mentioning the conditions of a marriage partner increased significantly. The proportion of posts scrutinizing a partner’s appearance, income, age, or family background rose from 25.6% in 2020 to 40.4% in 2023, a rise of approximately 15 percentage points over three years.

Especially notable is the change in how people evaluate a partner’s “family.” In the past, economic conditions were mainly judged by the partner’s job, salary, and housing situation, but recently, whether the partner’s parents are prepared for retirement is also being seen as a key family economic criterion.

A Hanmiyeon official explained, “Whereas in the past, people mostly mentioned appearance, income, and age, recently new keywords such as parents’ retirement, parents-in-law, and wife’s family have started to appear more frequently.”

This can be interpreted as people increasingly considering the likelihood of supporting or providing economic assistance to their spouse’s parents after marriage.

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Rising 'Fear' Amid Retirement Anxieties...Concerns Spread to Marriage, Housing, and Pensions

Hanmiyeon's analysis of the emotional tones in retirement-related posts found that negative emotions accounted for more than half of posts on major topics such as economic preparation, marriage, and parental support. In particular, “fear” comprised 32%, ranking highest among the emotions regarding economic preparation.

Not only words related to preparing for retirement funds—such as pensions, savings, insurance, investments, and retirement—but also housing and asset-related words like apartment, loan, jeonse, and cash were frequently mentioned. This indicates that concerns about retirement are intertwined not just with post-retirement life, but also with current everyday life.

Perceptions of pensions have also turned negative. In previous years, the most common emotion associated with pension-related posts was “interest,” but in 2025, “fear” came to the forefront.

While “interest” still ranked relatively high for personally managed pension savings and retirement pensions, negative emotions were exceedingly high at 62% for the National Pension. The proportion tagged as “anger” in these posts was the highest at 36%.

Reactions to extending the retirement age were also negative. Of posts concerning labor union wage negotiations, 73% expressed negative sentiments, and 51% were classified as “anger.”

Similarly, 65% of posts dealing with generational conflict showed negative reactions. There is a noticeable tendency to view retirement age extension not as an individual work period issue, but as one of job competition between younger and older generations.

Hanmiyeon concluded that anxieties about retirement are not just concerns for the middle-aged and elderly. In fact, retirement anxieties are permeating all aspects of young people’s lives, including marriage, housing, pensions, parental care, and generational conflict.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.