There was a slight increase in the number of people who applied to register their ethnic status as Aborigines last year, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday.
The number of Aborigines rose by 2.1 percent last year to 504,531, compared with 2008, possibly because more Aborigines filed applications to mark their ethnic identity, the ministry said in a statement, without elaborating on the reasons behind the applications.
Those who lived in mountainous areas accounted for 52.9 percent of the Aboriginal population, or 266,716 people, outnumbering those who lived in the plains areas, the ministry said.
There are 14 officially recognized tribes — the Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Rukai, Tsou, Saisiat, Yami, Thao, Kavalan, Truku, Sakizaya and Sedeq.
Each of the recognized tribes has their own distinct language, culture, customs, traditions and social structures.
Ministry statistics showed that among the 14 tribes, more than 90 percent of the population of Sedeq, Tsou, Yami, Truku, Bunun and Atayal lived in mountainous regions while 99.6 percent of the population of Amis lived in plain regions.
The Amis, Paiwan and Atayal remained the largest tribes, the ministry said.
Taoyuan County’s Aboriginal population ranked third among Aborigines in cities and counties last year, outnumbering those of Pingtung County for the first time, the ministry’s data showed.
Hualien and Taitung still had the most Aboriginal residents, while Matsu, Kinmen and Penghu had the smallest number, the data showed.
Aboriginal communities are aging more slowly than other ethnic communities, the ministry said.
The average age of Aborigines remained lower than Taiwanese by 5.45 years and the gap was widening, the ministry said.
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