A lack of incentives for younger people to marry as well as high costs for housing, elderly care and child-rearing are the main causes for Taiwan’s declining birthrate, Academia Sinica associate researcher Cheng Yen-hsin (鄭雁馨) said on Friday.
Cheng made the remarks in reaction to the Ministry of the Interior earlier in the day publishing data on childbirths in the nation.
Last year, 165,249 babies were born, a new low in more than a decade, the data showed.
Cheng said that in 2019, the average marrying age in Taiwan was 32.6 for men and 30.4 for women, and has since likely increased.
Birth cohorts in Taiwan are getting smaller, she said, adding that there are for example about 368,000 people in the nation who were born in 1984, but only 320,000 born in 1991.
Despite research to the contrary, many people are worried that having children at a later age might increase the mother’s and the child’s health risks, Cheng said.
“Many believe that a woman’s ‘golden age’ for having children is before 35,” Cheng said. “That mindset makes it difficult for people to find a partner.”
Men, especially those older than 35, tend to search for partners who are at least five years younger, she said.
Due to low wages, high real-estate prices, long work hours, a child-unfriendly culture in many companies and high costs for raising a child, many Taiwanese do not want to marry and have children, Cheng said.
Separately, Peng Wan-ru Foundation deputy director-general Wang Chao-ching (王兆慶) said that benefits for older people, a growing demographic in Taiwan, would inevitably take up funding that could be used for other purposes.
The government should implement incentives for young people to marry and have children, as a further decline of the birthrate would deprive society of its source of wealth and lead to its collapse, he said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare in a report based on 2018 data showed that families with a monthly income of NT$50,497, the average in Taiwan, spend about 24.1 percent of their income on children-related expenses.
One woman, surnamed Chen (陳), said in response to media queries that she does not want to have children, due to the high costs.
Chen said that while wages and government subsidies are flat, child-related costs increase, making “raising children a luxury few can afford.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
RSS