Taiwan’s population has declined for 21 consecutive months, Ministry of the Interior data showed, with experts warning that the nation’s trend of aging population and low childbirth rate might be difficult to reverse.
As of end of last month, the population was 23,317,031, which is 87,107 fewer than the number of people the same day last year, and an average of 238.65 fewer people each month, the ministry’s household registration data released last week showed.
There were 9,837,386 registered households by the end of last month, 458,367 households more than the same month last year and 12,423 households more than the previous month, the data showed.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu County Government
The average number of people in a household was 2.37 people, which is 0.13 people fewer than in the same month last year.
There were 1,783,633 households in New Taipei City, accounting for 18.13 percent of all households, as of the end of last month, followed by Kaohisung with 1,209,003 (12.29 percent) and Taichung with 1,164,690 (11.84 percent), the data showed.
Meanwhile, Lienchiang County had the highest average number of people per household at 3.38, followed by Kinmen County at 2.99 and Changhua County at 2.73, it showed.
As for the nation’s birthrate, 8,603 babies were born last month — an average of one baby born every 5.1 minutes, or a crude birthrate of 4.49 pecent — which is 3,189 fewer than the same month last year, but 139 more than the previous month.
The highest crude birthrate was 6.65 percent in Yunlin County, followed by Taitung County at 6.52 percent and Pingtung County at 5.93 percent, while the lowest was in Keelung at 2.40 percent, then Lienchiang County at 2.68 percent and Chiayi County at 3.43 percent.
A total of 15.387 people died last month, or an average of one death every 2.8 minutes, which is a crude mortality rate of 8.03 percent. There were 176 fewer deaths compared with the same month last year, but 161 more than the previous month.
The highest crude mortality rate was in Taitung at 12.23 percent, followed by Chiayi County at 11.91 percent and Yunlin County at 11.36 precent, while the lowest was in Hsinchu City at 5.61 precent, then Kinmen County at 6.02 percent and Taoyuan at 6.51 percent.
The population has been in decline for 21 consecutive months, as Taiwan’s crude mortality rate has continuously been higher than the birthrate.
As of the end of last month, there were 2,699,125 people aged 0 to 14, accounting for 11.58 percent of the population, 16,001,022 were between 15 and 64 years old (68.62 percent) and 4,616,884 people were aged 65 or older (19.8 percent), the data showed.
The number of people who were 20 years old or older was 19,634,250, accounting for 84.21 percent of the population.
The number of people of reproductive age — those aged 20 to 49, who accounted for 41.83 percent of the total population — declined, the data showed.
Last month, only 5,844 couples got married, or a crude marriage rate of 3.05 percent, while 4,402 couples got divorced, or a crude divorce rate of 2.3 percent, a trend that is keeping births low, experts said.
Elderly people, those aged 65 or older, accounted for about 20 percent of the total population, increasing the dependency ratio, the data showed.
If the dependency ratio continues to rise, additional pressure would be placed on the working population, healthcare systems, long-term care and social welfare, experts said.
Many developed countries are developing into super-aged societies — defined as 20 percent or more of the population aged 65 or older — with low birthrates, Colliers International Taiwan director Huang Shu-wei (黃舒衛) said.
As the imbalance in Taiwan’s population structure is progressing rapidly, long-term care, healthcare and community services must keep up, Huang said.
Long-term care services are facility-based, but they should be reconsidered on a larger scale to meet grass-root demands, he said.
H&B Realty lead researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said that the combination of an aging society, low marriage rates and high divorce rates has led to many elderly people in Taiwan living alone.
As most elderly people own property, they often become the targets of scam syndicates, Ho said, adding that the government should enhance education campaigns for elderly people to help prevent them from falling prey to scams.
The government should also provide a list of quality on-demand home cleaning and repair service companies, so elderly people and their houses would be protected, he added.
Additional reporting by Hsu Yi-ping
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