Four counties and cities are already super-aged, and Taipei has the oldest population among the six special municipalities, Ministry of the Interior statistics showed.
The UN defines a society as “aging” when 7 percent of its population is older than 65. When that age group accounts for 14 percent of a society, it is called an “aged society,” and when it reaches 20 percent, it is called a “super-aged society.” Nationwide, 17.56 percent of Taiwanese are over 65.
The National Development Council has predicted for years that Taiwan would become a super-aged society by 2025, but four counties and cities have already reached that threshold, ministry figures showed.
Elderly people account for 21.69 percent of Chiayi County’s population, while adults over 65 make up 20.91 percent of the population of Taipei, 20.13 percent of Nantou County and 20.12 percent of Yunlin County.
Among the six special municipalities, Taipei has the highest ratio of people over 65, followed by Kaohsiung at 18.33 percent, Tainan at 18.03 percent, New Taipei City at 17.05 percent, Taichung at 15.08 and Taoyuan at 14.28 percent.
However, in terms of the number of elderly residents, New Taipei City has the most at 680,000, followed by Taipei at 510,000.
The statistics showed that the youngest counties and cities to be Hsinchu County, with elderly residents making up 13.64 percent of the population, followed by Lienchiang County with 14 percent, Hsinchu City with 14.16 percent and Taoyuan with 14.28 percent.
However, according to the international definition, even the youngest counties and cities in Taiwan have become aging societies.
Meanwhile, the percentage of the population aged six or younger is 6.82 percent in Hsinchu County, 6.71 percent in Hsinchu City, 6.3 percent in Taoyuan, 5.85 percent in Taichung, 5.47 percent in 4.13 percent in Kinmen County, 4.09 percent in Keelung and 3.69 percent in Changhua County.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked