Male divorcees' biggest fear in finding a new spouse is meeting someone who is a freeloader, while female divorcees said they are afraid to meet someone who needs to be taken care of all the time, a survey showed Monday.

Only-You, a local matchmaking company exclusively for divorcees, conducted a survey on 516 people wishing to get married on the issue of "what makes you hesitant toward remarriage."

For men, the No. 1 reason was that the potential spouse "may have a tendency to mooch off me" at 32.2 percent, followed by "may dodge responsibility and only care about one's rights (29.5 percent)," "may meet a fraud (18.2 percent)," and "may meet someone old-fashioned (13.9 percent)."

Women's answers were led by the concern that they "may meet someone in need of constant caring" at 31 percent, followed by "may meet a fraud (28.3 percent)," "may meet someone old-fashioned (19 percent)," and "may dodge responsibility and only care about one's rights (29.5 percent)."

The top priority that divorcees were concerned about in comparison to their first marriage differed between genders. Men cared most about whether the potential spouse takes good care of oneself (28.7 percent), and whether they tend not to waste money (26 percent).

Women cared most about if the spouse-to-be was sufficiently prepared for retirement (34.1 percent) and if the person was generous (25.2 percent).

The third most important factor for both genders was respect for one's spouse.

"Among people seeking to remarry, there is a general tendency to distrust the opposite sex. One needs to take extra care so the partner will trust him or her, and work on making oneself more attractive," said Son Dong-gyu, the chief of the matchmaking company.

A March report by Statistics Korea showed that 93,000 couples split up in 2022, down 8,000 compared to the year before. The average age they got divorced at was 49.9 for men and 46.6 for women.