TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s population expanded for the first time in two years on a monthly basis, but this was due to immigration rather than an uptick in the birth rate.
The nation’s population was given as 23.19 million for July, according to Ministry of the Interior (MOI) figures. This was an increase of 3,786 from the previous month.
However, this was mainly due to 15,000 more immigrants arriving in July compared to June, as 101,555 immigrants entered the country. As for the birth rate, there were 10,950 births in July, an increase of seven from June but a decrease of 859 from the same period last year.
On an annual basis, the nation’s population has been shrinking since 2020, dropping 0.18% from the previous year to 23,561,236. It declined further in 2021 by 0.79% and stood at 23,375,314 — with just 153,820 births, an all-time low.
China Times quoted an associate professor of sociology at Sun Yat-sen University, Ye Gao-hua (葉高華) as saying that while the population had expanded, the reason was due to COVID pandemic border controls relaxing, translating into an increased immigration flow.
However, Ye said this did not address the problem of a low birth rate in Taiwan. He said this could only be solved by introducing new policy measures that would take time to bear fruit.
Taiwan has one of the world’s lowest birth rates. The fertility rate is 1.219 births per woman, according to the Macrotrends website.
South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate at 1 birth per woman. Taiwan is in sixth-last place out of 189 countries, per World Population Review figures.
Taiwan’s fertility rate follows along the same path as other rich countries like the U.S. and in Europe. This is due to social and economic reasons that delay childbearing, a growing preference not to have children, lack of childcare, possibly changing gender roles, and a reluctance to have children until after buying a house.
Per Statista, “Taiwan shares the demographic fate of many East Asian countries: the densely populated island once experienced high population growth, but birth rates have fallen sharply, and the population is now aging quickly.
