Taiwan’s happiness ranking in the world climbed two notches this year, as people felt slightly happier this year, thanks to a stable job market and income improvement, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The national happiness index — compiled from 24 indicators in 11 categories and based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Better Life Index (BLI) — stood at 6.96 points this year, ranking Taiwan 16th among 39 OECD members and partners, the DGBAS report showed.
It is the best performance since the adoption of the index in 2013 to capture the nation’s living condition. Norway topped this year’s ranking, followed by Australia and Denmark, according to the BLI report.
The statistics agency attributed the improving sentiment to a continued increase in employment and average income between 2014 and last year.
The labor participation rate rose to 64.5 percent last year, up for a fifth straight year from 61.3 percent in 2009, when the nation emerged from the global financial crisis, the report said.
The unemployment rate slid to 3.6 percent last year, compared with 4 percent in 2013, the report said, though the number of temporary and contract workers increased.
The real monthly wage averaged NT$46,782 last year, representing a 2.8 percent gain from a year earlier, which is the fastest growth since 2011, the report said.
Consequently, per capita disposable income picked up 6.6 percent last year, while per capita financial wealth grew 8.2 percent, the report said.
Per capita consumption amounted to NT$245,000 last year, an increase of 2.2 percent from a year earlier, it said.
Educational attainment also improved, with 77.9 percent of people aged between 25 and 64 having received a high-school education or higher, the report said.
The ratio was slightly higher for Taiwanese women at above 80 percent compared with 74.5 percent for Taiwanese men, the report found, adding that 32.6 percent enrolled in extended education programs.
People who work 50 hours a week stood at 10.2 percent last year, down from 11.1 percent a year earlier, the report said, indicating a changing perception toward work and leading a balanced life.
In addition, Taiwanese reported a higher satisfaction rating about housing conditions at 85.9 percent, up 3 percentage points from a year earlier, the report said.
The increased satisfaction came even though housing affordability failed to ease. Average housing prices constituted 8.5 times household incomes last year, up 0.1 from a year earlier, the report said.
The ratio is 15.7 times for houses in Taipei.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last