The number of multicultural marriages, a marital union between a South Korean national and a foreigner, continued to decrease last year from a year earlier, government data showed Wednesday.

Multicultural marriages fell 7.9 percent on-year to 22,462 in 2015, accounting for 7.4 percent of the country's total of 303,000 in the year, according to the data released by Statistics Korea.

The number of cross-cultural marriages has been on a steady decline since 2011, when it sank 12.5 percent on-year to 30,695.

Out of the total, couples of South Korean men and foreign women took up a majority 62.6 percent last year, followed by foreign male-Korean female couples with 22.9 percent.

The average age of such married couples was 35.4 years old for husbands and 27.9 years old for wives, compared with the age of 32.4 and 30.1 for Korean-Korean association, respectively.

Meanwhile, the data also showed that divorces of such multicultural couples dropped 12.5 percent to 11,287 last year from a year earlier, while the birth of mixed-race children reached 19,729, down 6.8 percent on-year.

The statistics agency said the downbeat trend of multicultural families was led by the South Korean government's guidelines to tighten fast-rising international marriages in 2010, under which the authorities require higher level of Korean proficiency and income in issuing a marriage visa. (Yonhap)