The population of Pingtung County last year dipped to 835,792, the 15th consecutive year of decline, government statistics showed.
Pingtung saw 3,400 more deaths than births, while residents moving out exceeded those moving in by 2,000, reflecting a population deficit caused by both social and natural causes, the Pingtung County Government said.
Pingtung had a population of 465,000 in 1950 and peaked at 913,000 in 1997, the county government said, adding that the county’s population has since seen annual declines since 2002.
Despite more than half of Pingtung’s 33 townships implementing childbirth subsidies — ranging from NT$2,000 to tens of thousands of New Taiwan dollars — a National Audit Office report for last year said the county’s birthrate was among the three lowest in the nation.
The subsidies are an inadequate solution to the population decline issue, Pingtung residents said, adding that better work opportunities, education and childcare facilities were more important.
Pingtung is not the only county facing a declining population, county officials said, adding that it is a common problem in the south due to the disproportionate allocation of resources to the north.
Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) has said that the declining population was his greatest challenge, adding that his primary task was to increase job opportunities and stem the outflow of people.
According to Pan, since he was elected in 2014, more than 25 manufacturing firms have invested in Pingtung and would begin hiring residents in June, which conservative estimates said could generate 6,000 jobs.
Statistics showed that Taitung County has been losing 1,500 residents annually, signaling that the Taitung County Government’s birthrate stimulus policies have been ineffective.
Taitung’s population peaked at 291,110 in 1975, but has been decreasing annually to 220,802 last year, the Taitung County Government said.
There were fewer job opportunities in Taitung, which caused young people to leave home to find work in other regions, it added.
There has been an increase in job opportunities in recent years, but most were in the tertiary sector, the Taitung County Government said, adding that because most of Taitung’s population are older people, the annual average death rate has exceeded the birth rate.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS