Gumi

Yang Geong Cheol, a factory manager and a father of two in Gumi, an industrial city south of Seoul, paid for his older daughter’s late-night cram-school classes for six years, but she didn’t get into elite colleges. “It was a waste of money,” he said.

A growing number of cities across South Korea are sponsoring blind-dating events like these for singles, desperate to prod young adults onto a track for marriage and family as the country has recorded the world’s lowest fertility rate for three years in a row.[…] In Gumi, an industrial city in central South Korea, 13 couples who met through the events have gotten married since 2016.