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Ranks of unmarried women swell

The number of Taiwan's unmarried women under 30 has increased dramatically over the past two decades, the Directorate General of the Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

There were 9.049 million women over 15 years old in Taiwan last year, and among them, 2.797 million, or 30.9 percent, were unmarried. Last year, 59.1 percent of women between 25 and 29 were unmarried, up 38.1 percentage points from 21 percent of unmarried women in this age bracket in 1983.

In the latest survey, which only covered until 2003, the average age of Taiwanese women's first marriage was 27.2 years in 2003, and the average age of remarriage was 36.5 years, up 2.6 years and 2.3 years, respectively, from 1983.

The remarriage ratio for Taiwanese women was 17.9 percent, compared to 54 percent for Taiwanese men.

In terms of regions, women in Taipei City were the oldest to marry for the first time at an average age of 29.2 years, while women in Changhua County were the youngest, at an average age of 25.5 years old.

A survey of Taiwanese women on raising children in November 2003 found that married women over 15 years old think the ideal number of children is 2.5, slightly lower than the actual figure of 2.7 persons. Those who have two children amounted to the highest figure of 34.3 percent.

Married women had their first baby at an average age of 24.8, 2.7 years older than the average age two decades ago.
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