More people move into Taiwan than out: MOI

More people moved into Taiwan than moved out in the first six months of this year, the latest tallies compiled by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) showed yesterday.

According to the tallies, 47,000 people immigrated to Taiwan or registered their households in Taiwan for the first time in the first six months of this year, while 32,000 people emigrated or moved out of the country.

The statistics also showed that Taipei County had the highest net inward population migration in the first six months of this year, with a figure of 9,843, followed by the outlying island county of Kinmen with 4,659, and Taoyuan County with 4,585.

During the same period, a total of 950,000 people — 41 in every 1,000 — migrated around the country, the statistics showed.

Meanwhile, Taipei City had the highest rate of outward migration among all administrative districts in the country, with a gross outward migration of 7,878 people in the first half of the year.

Taipei City was followed by Changhua County with an outward migration of 2,080 people and Kaohsiung County with 1,273 during the same six-month period.

In the first half of this year, 2,885 people moved from abroad to live in Taipei County, while 1,551 moved to Taoyuan County, and 1,090 moved to Taichung County, the statistics showed.

Over the past five years, Taipei County, Taoyuan County, Taichung City, Hsinchu and Kinmen counties have been the major districts attracting migration, while Taipei City, Changhua and Pingtung counties have topped all districts in terms of net outward migration, the statistics showed.

More than 141,000 people have moved residence from other districts to the cities and counties in northern Taiwan over the past five years, indicating that ­Taiwan’s population remains concentrated in the north, a ministry official said.

For the first time in the ­country’s demographic history, the rate of inward migration in eastern Taiwan this year was higher than the outward migration figure, the official said.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) attributed the shift in numbers in Taipei City to factors that include the city’s decreasing birth rate, high cost of living and steep real estate prices.