8.3% Prevalence of Depression Disorder among Married Migrant Women...2.2 percentage points more than Korean adult women ↑
Jun 19, 2025
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In the June issue of the 'Health and Welfare Forum', the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (Bosa-yeon) stated that marriage migrant women are highly vulnerable not only in terms of physical health but also in terms of mental health and health information comprehension such as depression and anxiety in unfamiliar socio-cultural environments.
According to Bosa-yeon, a survey of 519 married migrant women from China and Vietnam from September to November last year as part of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's consignment project showed that 8.3% of them had depressive disorders. This is 2.2 percentage points higher than the 6.1% prevalence of depressive disorders among adult women in Korea.
In particular, the prevalence of depressive disorders was higher when there were children under the age of 6, when individual and household income was low, when they had been discriminated against because they were from foreign countries, or when they were sick, there was no one other than their family members to help.
However, 12.9% of respondents said they had considered suicide, which was lower than that of Korean adult women (16.3%). In a domestic suicide survey, economic difficulties were suggested as the biggest reason for suicidal thoughts, while marriage migrant women cited emotional difficulties and conflicts with their spouses the most.
Earlier, in the National Health and Nutrition Survey of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the experience rate of depression among married migrant women was 27.4% in 2021, about twice as high as that of Korean women (14.1%). Although the depression experience rate of married migrant women is decreasing to 36.7% in 2015, 27.9% in 2018, and 27.4% in 2021, it still tends to be higher than that of Korean women.
The age-specific depression experience rate was 28.0% in their 20s, 27.3% in their 30s, 27.4% in their 40s, 27.3% in their 50s, and 26.6% in their 60s.
By country of origin, women from the Philippines experienced the highest rate of depression at 31.5%, followed by Thailand at 30.2% and Cambodia at 30.1%. China accounted for 27.9%, Vietnam 25.9%, Japan 23.6%, and Korea-China 23.3%. In addition, the lower the level of education and Korean proficiency, the higher the rate of depression experience.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
