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.”
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