Taiwan’s working-age population is expected to decline by 180,000 next year, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday, underscoring the need for a policy overhaul to meet new challenges.
“The seriousness of the demographic shrinking deserves serious attention,” Mao told a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Citing research by the National Development Council, Mao said the nation’s working-age population — people aged 15 to 65 — is expected to reach its peak this year at 17 million.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan had a total population of 23.4 million as of last month.
“The council estimated that the working population would decrease at a rate of 180,000 per year starting next year, which would add up to 1.8 million people in 10 years,” Mao said, describing the pace of the decline as a “steep, parabolic” curve.
An aging society and a falling birthrate require new thinking in formulating policies, ranging from economic development to industrial structure, education, social welfare and childcare, Mao said.
In addition to a series of measures in place to construct a healthy environment to encourage more people to have children, the government needs to create a decent work environment and conditions to increase labor participation, as well as refine its immigration policy to increase the workforce, the premier said.
The council estimated that Taiwan’s population would peak at about 23.5 million or 23.6 million between 2019 and 2026.
The council said that Taiwan would become an aged society, in which people aged 65 or older account for at least 14 percent of the population, in 2018, and enter a super-aged society in 2025 when more than 20 percent of the population is composed of people aged 65 or above.
Taiwan became an aging society in 1993, when the demographic accounted for 7 percent of the population.
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