The government has challenged the results of a World Population Review report, which said that Taiwan has the lowest fertility rate in the world at 1.218 children per woman.
The California-based organization’s Fertility Rate by Country report ranked Taiwan at the bottom of a list of 200 nations.
Other nations with total fertility rates similar to Taiwan’s were Moldova (1.23 children per woman), Portugal (1.26) and Poland (1.29), the report said.
However, the National Development Council on Sunday said in a news release that the rate for Taiwan did not match its data.
The government’s statistics for last year showed that Taiwan’s fertility rate was 1.06, which is lower than the figure in the report, but not the lowest in the world, because South Korea’s total fertility rate was 0.98 last year, the council said.
However, the council cited data from last year, while the report was based on UN data from 2017.
The government is making efforts to improve the environment for raising children, with the goal of increasing the total fertility rate to 1.4 by 2030, the council said.
The report said that the birth rate in Taiwan was below the rate needed to sustain population growth, which hinges on increased longevity.
The nation has a population of about 23.76 million, the 56th-largest in the world, the report said, forecasting that the figure would peak at 24.15 million in 10 years before starting to decline.
The median age in Taiwan is 40.7 years, meaning half of the population is older than 40 and would soon be out of the workforce, it said.
As of last month, the world’s total population was just more than 7.71 billion, the report said, adding that the five countries with the highest fertility rates were all in Africa: Niger (7.153), Somalia (6.123), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5.963), Mali (5.922) and Chad (5.797).
In Asia, the Philippines ranked 65th worldwide with a total fertility rate of 2.882, Japan ranked 179th (1.478) and South Korea ranked 194th (1.323), it said.
India (2.303) and China (1.635), two of the most densely populated countries, ranked 94th and 164th, respectively, it added.
The data for China and India likely reflected government policies and cultural expectations concerning reproduction, the World Population Review said.
The highest fertility rates in Europe were in Ireland (1.98) and France (1.973), while the US had a rate of 1.886, ranking it 135th, the report said.
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