The large number of newborns last year (the Year of the Dragon) has more than doubled Taiwan’s annual population growth rate within a two-year period, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
As of the end of last year, Taiwan’s total population had reached 23.31 million, 90,910 more than in 2011, pushing the annual population growth rate to 3.91 per 1,000, the ministry said.
The annual population growth rate was 1.83 per 1,000 in 2010 and 2.71 in 2011.
Hsieh Ai-ling (謝愛齡), the director of the ministry’s Department of Household Registration, said there were 234,599 newborns in Taiwan in the Year of the Dragon, which is considered to be auspicious, up 38,000 from the previous year and boosting the birthrate to 1.265 babies per woman of childbearing age.
In 2011, the average woman of childbearing age gave birth to only 0.89 children in Taiwan — the lowest birthrate in the world.
The ministry said the number of newborns this year is expected to exceed 200,000, based on the average number of newlyweds in the past three to five years. It expects the average birthrate to reach 1.2 in the near term.
Last year, 143,384 couples got married in Taiwan, compared with 21,943 from 2011.
A free exhibition aimed at teaching the public about air-raid shelters and basic emergency personal protection skills today opened on the concourse level of the Taipei MRT's Ximen Station. The event, organized by the National Police Agency, aims to raise awareness about disaster preparedness ahead of nationwide air raid drills scheduled from July 15 to 18, which are part of broader urban resilience exercises. The exhibition outlines the recommended actions people should take depending on whether they are indoors, commuting or outdoors when air-raid sirens sound. It also teaches people how to equip air-raid shelters and pack emergency "go bags," with displays
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
RSS