Nearly 194,000 South Koreans got married last year, the first increase in marriages in the country in more than a decade.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed that a total of 193,657 couples exchanged vows in 2023, an increase of 1% over the previous year. An official from the Bureau of Statistics attributed the increase in the number of couples delaying their marriages to social restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data also shows that marriages between Koreans and foreigners surged by about 20,000 last year, an increase of 18.3%.

South Korea’s marriage rate has declined steadily over the past three decades, from more than 400,000 in 1996 to less than 200,000 in 2021. The decline in marriage rates corresponds with a decline in South Korea’s birth rate, which is among the lowest in the world. The number of children born in South Korea dropped from just under 400,000 in 2017 to less than 300,000 in 2020, and hit a record low of 229,970 in 2023.

Marriage is seen as a prerequisite for having children in South Korea, and births out of wedlock are rare.