Taipei has the highest proportion of residents who have dependents, at more than half last year, data released by the Ministry of the Interior on Monday showed.
It is also where the heaviest financial burden is placed on the “sandwich generation” — those who need to support at least one child and at least one parent.
The “dependency ratio” climbed to more than 50 percent in Taipei for the first time last year, meaning that for every two working-age residents (aged 15 to 64) there is one family dependent, defined as younger than 14 or older than 65.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
The nation’s aging index is the number of people aged 65 or older divided by the number of people aged 14 and younger, multiplied by 100.
Chiayi County had the highest score in the index last year at 252.45, followed by Keelung at 196.12, Kinmen County at 196.01, Nantou County at 195.74 and Pingtung County at 193.08.
Keelung posted the biggest increase, rising from 184.22 in 2021, while Kinmen recorded the second-biggest increase, followed by Nantou.
In the six special municipalities, Taipei has the highest aging index at 166.1, followed by Kaohsiung at 161.78, while Taoyuan had the lowest score at 101.89.
Taoyuan still trailed Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, which scored 87.03 and 86.71 respectively. The two regions are the only places in Taiwan where the younger population is bigger than the elderly population.
Regarding families that support elderly parents, Taipei surpassed Chiayi County, with a dependency ratio of 31.44 percent, up from 29.76 percent in 2021. Chiayi County’s ratio was 31.12 percent.
Hsinchu City has the highest dependency ratio for young people at 23.38 percent, followed by Hsinchu County at 22.27 percent and Taoyuan at 19.54 percent.
The lowest financial burden placed on the “sandwich generation” was in Kinmen County and other outlying islands, as they have the most social welfare benefits, subsidies and incentives for residents, ministry officials said.
Many people who are registered as living on outlying islands, work and live on Taiwan’s main island, so their dependency ratio does not reflect the actual situation and cannot be used for comparison, officials said.
House ownership in Taiwan has increased, while there has also been a growth in single-person households, which made up 35 percent of all households nationwide. It is the highest ratio in the nation’s history.
There were 3.22 million single-person households last year, 1.91 million two-person households and 1.64 million three-person households, a record high for all three.
A decade ago, single, two and three-person households totaled 770,000, 340,000 and 150,000 respectively.
Households of four or more people totaled 2.65 million 10 years ago, but dropped to a record low 2.31 million last year, or 25.4 percent of the nation’s total.
The number of four-person households ranged from 1.3 million to 1.34 million throughout most of the past decade, but dropped below 1.3 million in 2020 and plunged to 1.26 million last year.
The average household has 2.56 people living in it, also a record low.
This indicates that the traditional three-generation nuclear family is fast disappearing, officials said, adding that people registered in households might not be related, but the trend shows that the family composition of Taiwan’s population is changing.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
COOLING OFF: Temperatures are expected to fall to lows of about 20°C on Sunday and possibly 18°C to 19°C next week, following a wave of northeasterly winds on Friday The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Sunday forecast more rain and cooler temperatures for northern Taiwan this week, with the mercury dropping to lows of 18°C, as another wave of northeasterly winds sweeps across the country. The current northeasterly winds would continue to affect Taiwan through today, with precipitation peaking today, bringing increased rainfall to windward areas, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. The weather system would weaken slightly tomorrow before another, stronger wave arrives on Friday, lasting into next week, Liu said. From yesterday to today, northern Taiwan can expect cool, wet weather, with lows of 22°C to 23°C in most areas,
RSS