The latest population and housing census shows that the ratio of men to women has fallen below parity for the first time since the country began conducting census polls.
According to the census, conducted between Dec. 26 last year and Jan. 22, the number of permanent female residents was 11,395,000 while male permanent residents totaled 11,349,000, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
There were 99.6 males for every 100 females, the lowest male-to--female ratio since the census began in 1956. The census is carried out every 10 years.
The demographics also reflected Taiwan’s low fertility rate and aging population, with the ratio of seniors aged 65 and over to the under-15 age group increasing to 1:1.5 from 1:17.9 when the census began.
The under-15 population numbered 3,583,000, with people aged between 15 and 64 numbering 16,717,000 and the population aged 65 and above at 2,445,000.
Compared with a decade ago, the number of citizens aged 15 and under fell by 1,082,000, while the number of seniors increased by 558,000.
Meanwhile, the number of divorced or separated people, single-parent families and single residents all increased during the 10-year period.
The number of divorced or separated people doubled, growing from 505,000 to 1,054,000, while there were 188,000 more single-parent families at 562,000 when compared with 10 years ago.
The percentage of single residents rose from 57.7 percent to 73.5 percent in the 25-29 age group and the number of single people in the 30-34 age group increased from 27.8 percent to 41.4 percent over the decade.
Average family size also shrank, to three members per family unit from 3.3 members in 2000, showing a slowing annual rate of population growth.
The number of private housing units totaled 8,074,000, an annual growth rate of 1.4 percent over 10 years, and the private housing vacancy rate was 19.3 percent, up 1.7 percent from the previous poll.
Vice Premier Sean Chen , who hosted the meeting, asked relevant agencies to review the findings and to minimize the impact on government housing and social welfare policies.
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