Report says birth rate in Taiwan is lowest in world

A study conducted by a US non-profit organization has found that Taiwan has the world’s lowest fertility rate, with an average of one child per woman, and that its fertility rate is declining.

Carl Haub, a senior demographer at the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB), wrote the report on birth rates in low fertility countries, which was published on Aug. 12 on the PRB Web site alongside the PRB’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet.

The data sheet said Taiwan registered only eight births per 1,000 people, the lowest level in the world.

The nation’s population as of June was 23.1 million, it said.

The world’s highest fertility rate was in Niger, with 7.4 children per woman, PRB said.

The data sheet also showed that the global population reached 6.8 billion this year and is on track to total 8.1 billion in 2050.

China has the world’s largest population, at 1.33 billion, but by 2050 India is expected to take that spot, with a projected population of 1.75 billion. China’s population is projected to be 1.437 billion in 2050.

In its report, PRB said that although the fertility rate continued to fall in developed countries, the global population would reach 7 billion in 2011, just 12 years after it hit the 6 billion mark.

PRB president Bill Butz said such growth was “unprecedented in world history.”

The report said that during the 20th century, nearly 90 percent of population growth came from less developed regions — parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania — as a result of declining death rates.

“The great bulk of today’s 1.2 billion youth — 90 percent — are in developing countries,” said Haub, adding that eight in 10 youths live in Africa and Asia.

In the next few decades, “these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment and adequate health care,” he said.

As a result, one of the major social questions in the next few decades will be meeting their expectations, Haub said.

PRB seeks to gather and publicize information about population growth, health and the environment to advance the well-being of current and future generations.