More and more Koreans are putting off marriage and having children until they're in their thirties,... and with that,... the demographics of the market for children's goods are also shifting.
Our Oh Soo-young has more.
More and more Koreans in their forties are shopping for toddlers and young children,... as couples in the country continue to postpone marriage and childbirth.
According to social commerce site Ticketmonster on Wednesday ahead of the new school year,... adults aged between forty and forty-four made up the largest portion of sales of childrens' bags,... at 38 percent.
This marks a significant change from 2016,... when those in their late thirties were the biggest customers.
The number of shoppers in their thirties, as a whole, has declined by six percentage points to 43 percent since then,... while the forties age group increased by six percentage points,... accounting for 50 percent of all sales of children's bags.
Industry watchers say this reflects how parents of young children are generally getting older as many Koreans are delaying marriage and childbirth.
According to Statistics Korea,...the average Korean woman in 2017 gave birth to her first child at the age of 31-point-six,... older than any other country in the OECD,... which averaged 29 years of age.
Meanwhile, the average age for first marriages was at 32-point-nine for men and 30-point-two for women,... around two years older than a decade ago.
According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs last year,... for every year that marriage is delayed,... childbirth is likely to be postponed by six months.
The chances of having a child is also likely to fall by eight to nine percent.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.