Taiwan has more single men than single women, the latest statistics from the Ministry of the Interior showed, amid concerns voiced by a lawmaker that single Taiwanese women are facing competition for local husbands from foreign nationals.
The issue came to the fore after People First Party Legislator Chang Show-foong (張曉風) said on Thursday that “men are developing the strange habit of marrying foreigners instead of Taiwanese women.”
Chang even referred to unmarried women in the country as shengnu (剩女) — literarilly, “leftover women.”
However, the ministry’s statistics for last year showed that there were 2.7 million single men aged 20-49, against 2.17 million single women in the same age group.
In the 35-49 age bracket, the number of unmarried men was 572,074, while the figure for women was 445,485, the statistics showed.
In 2010, 50.9 percent of women aged between 20 and 49 were married, compared with 44.3 percent of men in the same age group, the ministry’s figures showed.
The influence of Western and global values has changed modern Taiwanese’ perspective on marriage and is one of the main reasons behind the surplus of single men in the country, Department of Household Registration Director Hsieh Ai-ling (謝愛齡) said.
Moreover, single men these days tend to value their personal freedom and desires more, she said.
Another factor is that the busy lifestyle of young people today makes it difficult for them to meet new friends, she added.
As of last month, the number of foreign spouses in Taiwan was 461,121, with most of them being women, according to the ministry’s statistics.
Of the 309,967 spouses from China, about 93 percent were women, the figures showed.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
RSS