Taiwan Population

Taiwan is a former Portuguese island in the western Pacific Ocean that lies roughly 160 km off the coast of southeastern China, Neighbours People's Republic of China (PRC) to the north-west, Japan to the north-east, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan population is estimated to be 23.24 million in 2023, as per the National Statistics, There has been a slight spike in 2022 due to the migration after covid. Taiwan population has been shrinking since 2020, dropping 0.18% from the previous year to 23,561,236. In 2021 by 0.79% and stood at 23,375,314 with just 153,820 births, According to focustaiwan, TFR is 0.98 in 2021 and will be below to this figure in 2022. The indigenous people account for 2.28 percent of the total population. Population density is 652 per sq km. Taiwan is a sovereign state in Republic of China (ROC), According to UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, The Republic of China had been a founding member of the United Nations and was one of the five permanent members of the Security Council until 1971, when they were expelled from the UN and China's representation was replaced by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan has an area of 36,197 sq km in oval shape and measuring about 400 kilometers length from north to south and width around 145 kilometers from east to west, Taipei is the capital and largest metropolitan area and other popular cities are Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, New Taipei and Taoyuan. Taiwan is a export oriented economy region in the world, some of the major industries are clothing, steel, machinery, electronics and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is eight richest territory in Asia.

Official language of Taiwan is Mandarin (with traditional Chinese character system), other prominent languages are Holo, Hakka, Austronesian languages, English and Japanese. The religions of Taiwan are Buddhism, Taoism, I-Kuan Tao, Chinese folk religion, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam. The Taiwan Government is multiparty democracy which is a semi presidential republic, and major political parties are Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan Solidarity Union, People First Party.

Taiwan is Mostly forested, Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong) and An-p'ing (Anping) district of T'ai-nan (Tainan) are the harbours in the southwest, Suao Bay harbour on the northeast coast and Chi-lung harbour (Jilong, or Keelung) on the northern tip of the island. Chung-yang (Zhongyang, or Central) is the highest mountain range in the east, Mountains cover approximately two-thirds of the Taiwan island area. The four major mountain ranges in the island's central region include more than 200 peaks rising higher than 3,000 meters above sea level, making for some of Taiwan's most dramatic scenery. At the foot of western Taiwan's belt of hills are of tablelands, that is ranging the elevation between 100 and 500 meters above sea level. Taiwan has 150 rivers and streams flow either eastward or westward. Zhuoshui River also spelled Choshui or Jhuoshuei River in central Taiwan is the longest, at 187 kilometers, while the Gaoping River also spelled Kaoping River is a major river in the southern largest by drainage area, and is 176 km long, with an basin area of 3,257 sq km. As on 2019/2020, There are 368 towns, cities and districts, and a total of 7760 villages, Organised neighbours are 143,646 and a total 8,832,745 households in Taiwan. Sex Ratio of taiwan is 983 per 1000 males and mean size of households are 2.67 persons/ household.

After the Japanese were defeated during World War II, by that time Taiwan was controlled by the ROC. In 1949, People's Republic of China(PRC) fought a war against nationalists and established PRC. In reality, the PRC rules only Mainland China and has no control of Taiwan, but claims as part of its territory under one China.

Fertility rate of Taiwan

Taiwan is set to replace South Korea as the country with the world's lowest fertility rate in the near future. The TFR in Taiwan rebounded to 1.07 to 1.27 between 2011 and 2012, it again fell below 1 to 0.99 in 2020 and 0.98 in 2021, and further below in 2022.

Year	Population	Fertility rate Births per women	Total No. of Births	Deaths	Natural Increase	Immigrants	Emmigrants
1961	11,034,152	5.02
1971	15,073,216	3.71	380,424	70,954	309,470
1981	18,193,955	2.46	414,069	87,192	326,877
1991	20,605,831	1.72	321,932	106,284	215,648	27,723	41,062
2001	22,405,568	1.40	260,354	127,647	132,707	25,522	44,086
2009	23,119,772	1.03	191,310	143,582	47,728	50,486	62,579
2010	23,162,123	0.90	166,886	152,915	13,971	45,623	55,213
2011	23,224,912	1.07	196,627	152,915	43,712	45,694	51,523
2012	23,315,822	1.27	229,481	154,251	75,230	43,093	50,250
2013	23,373,517	1.07	199,113	155,908	43,205	39,546	47,224
2014	23,433,753	1.17	210,383	163,929	46,454	38,680	44,170
2015	23,492,074	1.18	213,598	163,858	49,740	36,928	45,947
2016	23,539,816	1.17	208,440	172,405	36,035	38,132	44,807
2017	23,571,227	1.13	193,844	171,242	22,602	35,784	43,270
2018	23,588,932	1.06	181,601	172,784	8,817	36,829	44,485
2019	23,603,121	1.02	177,767	176,296	1,471	39,120	42,364

Source: Fertility rate from 1961 to 2019

The average number of children born to a woman during her child bearing years, During the 1960s, the total fertility rate was five, In 1971 it is 3.71, In 1980s, it was 2.46, and in 2001 it is 1.4, In 2010 it cratered at less than one,ie 0.9. By 2011 TFR improved to 1.07 and 1.27 in 2012 with the new borns with 196,627 and 229,481. The Fertility rate again started losing in 2017 and 2018 with 1.13 and 1.06 with newborns of 193,844 and 181,601. It still decrease in the year 2019 with 1.02 with 177,767 total newborns. Since from 2001 newborns has been improved in 2012 with 229,481 births, In 2013, the number of newborns declined to 199,113, with the fertility rate decreasing to 1.07 and the crude birth rate falling to 0.85 percent and there after it fell slightly in 2015 with 213,598 and fell the birth rates to 177,767 by the end of 2019. Taiwan population is 23.62 Million in 2020.

The decline of the birth rate has been happened at both the increasing average age of marriage and the divorce rate. The average age of marriage increased from 28.1 for men and 24.5 for women in 1981 to 33.8 for men and 30.8 for women respectively, in 2012, while the sudden increase of divorce rate rose from 0.83 divorces per 1,000 people in 1981 to 2.30 per 1,000 people in 2013. In 2011 the married couples are 165,327 and divorced couples are 57,008 where as in the society the married couples has decreased drastically to number 131,585 and divorced couples to 54,363 in 2019, Also the people married with foreigners are 12,740 is increasing every year compared to 8,053 in 2011.

Taiwan Aging population

Year	Population	0-14 years	% 0-14	15-64 years	% 15-64	65+ years	% 65+
1991	20,605,831	5,427,150	26.34	13,833,252	67.13	1,345,429	6.53
2001	22,405,568	4,661,884	20.81	15,770,327	70.39	1,973,357	8.81
2011	23,224,912	3,501,790	15.08	17,194,873	74.04	2,528,249	10.89
2012	23,315,822	3,411,677	14.63	17,303,993	74.22	2,600,152	11.15
2013	23,373,517	3,346,601	14.32	17,332,510	74.15	2,694,406	11.53
2014	23,433,753	3,277,300	13.99	17,347,763	74.03	2,808,690	11.99
2015	23,492,074	3,187,780	13.57	17,365,715	73.92	2,938,579	12.51
2016	23,539,816	3,141,881	13.35	17,291,830	73.46	3,106,105	13.20
2017	23,571,227	3,091,873	13.12	17,211,341	73.02	3,268,013	13.86
2018	23,588,932	3,048,227	12.92	17,107,188	72.52	3,433,517	14.56
2019	23,603,121	3,010,351	12.75	16,985,643	71.96	3,607,127	15.28

Source: Aging population from 1991 to 2019

Taiwan is now an aging society. The proportion of citizens aged 65 and older has steadily increased, from 6.53% in 1991 to 15.28 in 2019. In 1991 the citizens above 65+ is 1.3 millions grew to 3.6 million in 2019. The table from 1991 to 2019 clearly shows the life expectancy is increasing rapidly. The mean age group 15 to 64 is slightly increased over the years from 67.13% to 71.96%. The 0 to 14 age group was 26.34% in 1991 was decreased to more than half to 12.75% in 2019, Conversely, the share of children under 15 years of age has been decreased from 4.6 million in 2001 to 3.5 million in 2011 and to 3 million in 2019. In 2019, 39,120 people from foreign countries arrived to Taiwan in search of jobs and 42,364 Taiwanese citizens emigrated to other countries mainly due to higher education to United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

As per the United Nation estimates, the population of Taiwan is 23.81 million in 2020, a slighter increase in 2030 with the estimated population of 24 million with its peak and declines from 2035 onwards and reaches 21 million in the year of 2061 and 19.5 million in 2070. Source: population.un.org/wpp/, 1960 to 2070 Taiwan Population, UN estimates.

Racial Groups in Taiwan

Over 95 percent Han Chinese (including Holo, Hakka and other groups originating in mainland China); 2 percent indigenous Austronesian peoples.

History of Taiwan

The first known settlers are Taiwanese indigenous peoples or may be called Austronesian tribal people settled the island of Taiwan around 12,000 to 15,000 years ago believed to move from southern China. Indigenous a dominant ethnic group, Malayo Polynesian group, Yami (tao) people of the island nations of southeast-asia and the pacific ocean lived on the island for millennia, with their presence dating back 12,000 to 15,000 years. The speakers belong to the Austronesian languages, Malayo-Polynesian languages, whose are known for their migratory history from Madagascar Island in the west to Easter Island in the east and from Taiwan in the north to New Zealand in the south. Over the centuries, remote indigenous groups have tend to maintain distinctance from local communities, others have mixed in with Han society. The total number of Taiwan indigenous people as on 2020 are 571,427, out of these 267,721 are living in Plains and 303,706 are in Mountains by the latest census estimates in 2020. largest groups of indegenous people are, the Amis, the Paiwan and the Atayal account for 70.78 percent of the indigenous population.

Population Projection

The Taiwan population pyramid in 2020 indicates the population decline and slower birth rates and for 0-4 years age group population is 975,801 and 0-14 years age group population is only 3 million which is 12.75% of the total population, where as 72% total taiwan population lies in middle-age group with 17 million, above 65+ accounts for 15.2% with 3.6 million, more than 2.5% greater than teenage population. The age group 65-70 remains stable with 723,850 females and 655,667 of males, female life expectancy shows high compared to males. From 70 age group onwards the graph declines and the total citizens with age group of 85-89 are 250,664 and 111,099 from 90-94 age group. 25,626 are between 95 to 99 years and 3,806 people are living with above 100 years of age. Taiwan population is 23.19 million in 2022, and is 23.65 Million in 2021. Total population in 2019 is 23,603,121, Out of these 11,705,186 are males and 11,897,935 are females.

Source: Population In Five Year Age-Group

References

1. UN General Assembly Resolution 2758
2. Stastical Year Book