The number of babies born in the nation during the first six months of the year reached 82,712, a decline of 8.9 percent compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of the Interior’s latest statistics released on Saturday showed.
The ministry attributed the drop to some people’s reluctance to have children born in the “Year of the Tiger,” in the 12-year cycle of animals on the Chinese zodiac.
However, the drop was smaller than the 16.7 percent year-on-year decline in the previous Year of the Tiger in 1998, the ministry said in a statement.
For the period from January to last month, there was a crude birth rate of only 3.58, the lowest level ever in Taiwan, the statistics showed. Crude birth rate is calculated based on the number of babies born per 1,000 people per year.
Taiwan had one of the world’s lowest birth rates with eight births per 1,000 people last year, far lower than the global average of 20 births per 1,000 people.
Last year, 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan, down nearly 4 percent from the previous year.
The latest ministry tallies show that Hsinchu City, the high-tech hub near Taipei, recorded the highest birth rate, 5.8 per 1,000, among all cities and counties in Taiwan, followed by 5.37 in Kinmen County and 5 in Hsinchu County.
More than 90 percent of newborn babies in the first six months of the year were born to local mothers, while 5 percent were born to mothers from China, Hong Kong and Macau and 3.9 percent to mothers from other countries, the statistics showed.
The government has launched many programs to boost the birth rate, including subsidies for families to hire nannies or have their babies attend day care centers, as well as subsidies for people who want to go on extended parental leave, the ministry said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a