A total of 48,661 babies were born in the nation in the first quarter of this year, a drop of 10.8 percent from the same period of last year, while the new estimate for newborns for this entire year is 190,000, Ministry of the Interior information showed yesterday.
Of cities and counties in the first quarter, Hsinchu City had the highest so-called “crude birth rate” — which indicates the average annual number of live births during a year per 1,000 people in the population estimated at midyear — with 0.3 percent, while Keelung City saw the lowest, at 0.13 percent, the statistics show.
Compared with the same quarter of last year, all cities and counties nationwide saw a decline in the crude birth rate, with Lienchiang County on outlying Matsu Island registering the largest decline — 0.05 percentage points — followed by Chiayi County, which posted a 0.04 percentage point fall.
The ministry said that eight out of every 100 newborns in the first quarter had a parent who is a citizen of China, Hong Kong or Macau, or a foreign national.
Over the past decade, the rate of babies born to a mother who is a citizen of China, Hong Kong or Macau has dropped to 3.9 percent from 5.2 percent of the total, while the rate of babies born to a mother who is a foreign national has fallen to 2.8 percent from 8.1 percent in 2004, according to ministry data.
The gender ratio among newborns during the period was 107.5 boys to every 100 girls, the ministry said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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