Taiwan is expected to replace South Korea as the country with the lowest birthrate by 2035, population projections by the National Development Council showed.
The nation’s birthrate is expected to be the lowest in the world with 1.12 births per woman in 2035, when South Korea’s birthrate is expected to be 1.18, data released by the council showed.
Taiwan previously had the lowest birthrate in the world when the number fell to 0.9 births per woman in 2015, but the figure increased slightly to 0.99 in 2020, topping South Korea’s 0.84, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
Japan became a super-aged society in 2005, while Taiwan and South Korea are expected to follow suit by 2025, but they have been forecast to age faster than Japan.
According to the WHO, nations where at least 7 percent of the population are 65 or older are considered an aging society, those with an elderly population of at least 14 percent are considered an aged society and those with an elderly population of at least 20 percent are deemed a super-aged society.
It took Western countries such as the US, the UK, Germany and France 46 to 126 years to progress from an aging society to an aged society, and another 15 to 51 years to move from an aged society to a super-aged society, the data showed.
In comparison, the transitions in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore — the four Asian Tigers — happened faster, with Taiwan and South Korea expected to progress from an aged to super-aged society in seven years, and Hong Kong and Singapore in nine years, the data showed.
The Asian Tigers’ economies took off between 1960 and 1990, which could be attributed to their export-oriented trading strategies, the international division of labor and the demographic dividend, which occurs when the working population aged 15 to 64 accounts for more than two-thirds of the overall population, the council said.
However, the demographic dividend period for the Asian Tigers would end in a decade, while their dependency ratios would continue to climb.
For instance, Taiwan’s working-age population is expected to make up 68.1 percent of the total population by 2025, while the figure in South Korea is expected to be 69.2 percent, the council said.
The demographic dividend is forecast to end in 2030 in both nations, with the working-age population dropping to 65.3 percent of the total population in Taiwan and 66 percent in South Korea.
As Taiwan continues to age faster, the working-age population is expected to make up less than 50 percent of the total population in 2060, meaning that the number of people who support the nation’s economy and pay taxes would be fewer than those who are dependent on them, the council said.
The figure is expected to be higher than South Korea’s 48.5 percent, but lower than Japan’s 51.6 percent, the US’ 60 percent, the UK’s 59 percent and Germany’s 57.2 percent.
As for the aging index, which measures the number of people aged 65 or older per 100 people younger than 15, Taiwan’s and South Korea’s figures are predicted to climb to 408 percent and 456.2 percent respectively by 2050, which would be among the highest in the world, the council said.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS