Pingtung County’s population declined by 6,600 people last year, marking 14 consecutive years of dwindling population.
The latest data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior gave Pingtung County’s total population as 841,253, consisting of 430,000 male residents and 410,000 female residents.
A total of 4,700 couples married in the county last year, while 1,900 couples filed for divorce, the data showed.
The number of people above the age of 65 exceeded 121,000, corresponding to 14.5 percent of the county’s total population, the ministry data show.
There were 5,266 births and 8,114 deaths in the county last year, while 3,816 people moved out of Pingtung.
Kaohsiung received the majority of the people moving out of Pingtung, with five other cities accounting for the rest, the Pingtung County Government said, adding that the data show females are more inclined to move away from the area than males.
Compared with 2014, the county lost 6,664 residents, bringing the population growth/decrease ratio to 78 per million.
The Pingtung County Government’s department of civil affairs said the county’s population, which was 460,000 in 1950, reached its peak of 913,000 residents in 1997, adding that the county’s population has been declining since 2002.
Department Director Cheng Wen-hua (鄭文華) said the county has been affected by the restructuring of Kaohsiung into a special municipality and the nationwide decline in birth rates.
Low birth rates and county residents moving to other cities are problems that many counties are facing and the local governments are not equipped to handle the issue, Cheng said.
The central government should make solving the problem a priority, Cheng said, adding that aside from improving the overall economy, the central government should not be focusing its resources on special municipalities.
Only by giving rural counties and townships more resources can they slowly reverse the emigration problem, Cheng said.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of