Seoul: Nearly 70 percent of South Koreans believe that couples can live together without getting married, and almost 40 percent support having children outside of wedlock, a government report showed Tuesday, signaling a shift in perceptions around marriage and childbearing in the traditionally conservative country. According to Yonhap News Agency, the report was based on a survey conducted by Statistics Korea in May 2024, involving 36,000 respondents aged 13 years and older. The survey is conducted biennially. The findings revealed that 67.4 percent of respondents believe couples can live together without being married, marking an increase of 2.2 percentage points from the tally two years ago. Support for cohabitation has steadily risen since 2012, when only 45.9 percent of respondents agreed with the view. Notably, the rate was high among respondents in their 20s and 30s, with over 80 percent in these age groups expressing support for cohabitation without marriage. The survey also showed that 37.2 percen t of respondents believe it is acceptable to have children outside of marriage, up 2.5 percentage points from the previous survey. This perspective has been on the rise since 2012, when it stood at 22.4 percent. An agency official noted that the survey might indicate changing perceptions about marriage and childbirth in South Korea but cautioned that it may be premature to determine the impact of such views on the country's total fertility rate or birth trends. In 2023, the country's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, was recorded at 0.72, marking the lowest since 1970, according to earlier data from Statistics Korea. Separate data showed that 4.7 percent of all newborns were born to mothers who were unmarried or not in a civil partnership last year, marking the highest level since the agency began compiling relevant data in 1981. The survey also indicated that 52.5 percent of South Koreans believe marriage is a must, a slight increase from 50 p ercent recorded two years earlier. When asked why they might choose not to marry, the most common reason cited was insufficient funds for marriage, accounting for 31.3 percent. Concerns about the cost of raising children were cited by 15.4 percent of respondents, followed by job instability at 12.9 percent.