SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- International marriages in South Korea rose for the first time in seven years last year due to the increased couples between South Korean men and foreign women, a government report showed Friday.
The number of cross-cultural marriages was 21,917 in 2017, up 1 percent, or 208, from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.
It ended the sixth consecutive year of decline in international marriages as more South Korean men got married to foreign women.
The number of couples between a South Korean man and a foreign woman took up 65 percent of the total cross-cultural marriages.
The international marriages accounted for 8.3 percent of the total marriages, including those between South Korean men and women, in 2017, up 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier.
The number of marriages between South Korean men and women reduced 6.7 percent over the year to 242,538 in 2017.
Among the South Korean male-foreign female pairs, Vietnamese brides made up 27.7 percent. It was followed by Chinese brides with 25 percent and Thai wives with 4.7 percent.
Chinese husbands accounted for 10.2 percent of the total foreign male-South Korean female couples, trailed by U.S. bridegrooms with 6.4 percent and Vietnamese husbands with 2.7 percent.
The number of mixed-race newborn babies was 18,440 in 2017, down 5.1 percent from the prior year. The mixed-race children took up 5.2 percent of the total babies born here last year.
