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Korea is seeing a striking shift in parental preferences, with surveys showing that daughters are now favored over sons across all generations, including older adults.

While 29 percent of respondents said they would prefer to have a daughter even if they had no son, only 2 percent said they would prefer to have a son without a daughter. The dramatic reversal from the country's once-strong preference for sons reflects broad social and cultural changes, including weakened expectations for children to support aging parents, the growing influence of maternal grandparents and the rise of so-called "daughter-loving dads."

According to the 2026 Survey on Perception of Child and Parenting, released by Korea Research on July 28, 62 percent of respondents said they believed a family should have at least one daughter, compared with 35 percent who said a family should have at least one son.

The preference was even more pronounced among older adults. Among respondents aged 70 and older, 73 percent said having a daughter was important, while 50 percent said the same about having a son.

When asked about their ideal family composition, 33 percent said they wanted one son and one daughter, while 29 percent said they could do without a son but wanted at least one daughter. By contrast, only 2 percent said they could do without a daughter but wanted at least one son. The survey was conducted from April 24-27 among 1,000 adults nationwide aged 18 or older.

A Gallup International survey conducted in 2024 also found that Korea had the world's strongest preference for daughters. Only 15 percent of Koreans preferred sons, while 28 percent preferred daughters — the highest rate among 44 countries surveyed. Japan, Spain and the Philippines followed at 26 percent, with Bangladesh at 24 percent.

The findings mark a dramatic reversal from 1992, when 58 percent of Koreans preferred sons and only 10 percent preferred daughters.

Decline of traditional values, rise of maternal family ties

Experts say the shift reflects profound social and cultural changes.

In the past, eldest sons were traditionally expected to support their parents in old age, carry on the family lineage and perform ancestral rites. However, those expectations have steadily weakened as more married couples establish independent households and dual-income families have become the norm.

As more married women remain in the workforce, maternal grandparents have also come to play a larger role in child care. In many families, grandchildren spend more time with their maternal grandparents than with their paternal grandparents.

Daughters are also more likely to receive child care support from their own parents after marriage and to maintain close emotional ties with them, contributing to stronger intergenerational relationships.

One frequently cited example comes from gatherings of older adults, where participants are asked, "If you became seriously ill, who would come to your side first?" Many answer that it would be their daughters.

In previous generations, daughters-in-law were often expected to care for their husbands' aging parents. Today, those expectations have diminished considerably, and many families no longer view such arrangements as desirable. Instead, parents increasingly feel more comfortable relying on their own daughters.

The equal treatment of sons and daughters under inheritance laws and the growing acceptance of children taking their mother's surname have also weakened the traditional emphasis on producing a male heir.

As distinctions between sons and daughters continue to fade, many parents believe daughters maintain closer relationships with their families even after marriage.

Combined with these broader social and cultural changes, those perceptions have helped make Korea the country with the world's strongest preference for daughters.

This article from Kormedi.com, Korea’s top health care and medical portal, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.