Taiwan is still set to become a super-aged society by 2025, but with a larger dependent population than forecast in a previous study in 2020, meriting the attention of policymakers, the National Development Council said yesterday.
The council made the call after releasing its biannual projection on the nation’s demographic trends for the coming 50 years, based on latest household registration, birth, death, migration and other data.
“Taiwan is on schedule to become a super-aged society in three years, when the ratio of people aged 65 years or older will exceed 20 percent” of total population, the council said.
Photo: Wu Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
While the pace of aging remains the same and the demographic dividend is expected to end in 2028 as previously projected, the dependent population has been growing faster than expected, the council said.
The dependent population — including children and people aged 65 or older — would be equal to 42.2 percent of the workforce this year and climb to 53.2 percent in 2030, and outnumber the working population by 2060, four years earlier than previously forecast, the council said.
The number of people aged 15 to 64, or the working-age population, is projected to reach 16.3 million this year, before falling to 15.07 million by 2030 and to 7.76 million by 2070, the council said.
The number of elderly people is increasing, while the workforce is shrinking, the council said.
If unaddressed, the trend would be unfavorable and unhealthy for economic and social development, it said.
The demographic dividend ends when the number of people aged 15 to 64 account for less than 75 percent of the overall workforce, signifying a sluggish labor force and an increasing social burden, it said.
The government can tackle demographic challenges by boosting the birthrate to slow the pace of aging, and by encouraging senior citizens and women to join the labor force, the council said.
Low wages in Taiwan make young people unwilling and hesitant to marry and raise children, pundits have said.
In the meantime, the government should motivate the private sector to transform and upgrade operations, for example by embracing automation to cut its dependence on human labor, the council said.
Policymakers should relax immigration requirements so that foreigners can move to Taiwan for work more easily, it said.
The government should adopt measures to make Taiwan a safe and friendly living environment for elderly people, the council said.
ELIGIBLE FOR JANUARY: All presidential candidates and their running mates meet the requirements to run for office, and none hold dual citizenship, the CEC said Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator and vice presidential candidate Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈) is working with the Central Election Commission (CEC) to resolve issues with her financial disclosure statement, a spokesman for the candidate said yesterday, after the commission published the statements of all three presidential candidates and their running mates, while confirming their eligibility to run in the Jan. 13 election. Wu’s office spokesman, Chen Yu-cheng (陳宥丞), said the candidate encountered unforeseen difficulties disclosing her husband’s finances due to being suddenly thrust into the campaign. She is also the first vice presidential nominee to have a foreign spouse, complicating the reporting of
GOOD NEWS: Although open civic spaces are shrinking in Asia-Pacific countries and territories, Taiwan’s openness is a positive sign, an expert said Taiwan remains the only country in Asia with an “open” civic space for the fifth consecutive year, the Civicus Monitor said in a report released yesterday. The People Power Under Attack 2023 report named Taiwan as one of only 37 open countries or territories out of 198 globally, and the only one in Asia. Compiled by Civicus — a global alliance of civil society organizations dedicated to bolstering civil action — the ranking compiled annually since 2017 measures the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression around the world. Researchers assign each country or territory one of five rankings describing the
NOT JUST CHIPS: Although semiconductor processes are on the list, it also includes military technology and post-quantum cryptography to combat emerging cyberthreats The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released a list of 22 technologies it considers crucial to the nation’s security and competitiveness, including the 14-nanometer semiconductor process and advanced chip packaging. For the first time, the council made a list of core technologies with an aim of preventing secret information about those technologies being leaked to foreign countries, which could put the nation’s security and the competitiveness of local industries at risk. For years, local semiconductor companies have faced challenges from talent poaching and theft of corporate secrets by Chinese competitors, who are seeking to rapidly advance their technology capabilities through
Japanese are more likely to view China as a major threat than Taiwanese, although both sides agree that Beijing’s power and influence are the most concerning geopolitical hazard, a Pew Research Center poll showed on Tuesday. From June 2 to Sept. 17, Pew researchers polled respondents in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong on perceived threats posed by China, the US, Russia and North Korea. China’s power and influence was considered the greatest threat above North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, or US or Russian influence, the report said. Japanese respondents showed the most concern over China, with 76 percent calling it a
RSS