|
Taiwan 2002 |
 |
 |
People |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Taiwan's Population Distribution
The population density of the ROC on Taiwan is 616 persons per square kilometer, making it the second highest in the world after Bangladesh. Taipei City, which covers 272 sq. km, is Taiwan's most crowded urban area with 9,737 persons per square kilometer. Kaohsiung City (154 sq. km) is next, with 9,704 persons per square kilometer; and Taichung City (163 sq. km), the third most populated area, has 5,910 persons per square kilometer. Heavily populated urban areas have grown outside the official limits of major cities, forming large metropolitan areas, which are now home to 68.65 percent of Taiwan's total population. Among the island's metropolitan areas, the Chungli-Taoyuan Greater Metropolitan Area grew the fastest in 2000, with a population increase of 2.54 percent. The Taichung-Changhua Greater Metropolitan Area was second with a 1.89 percent growth rate. The metropolitan area with the highest population remains the Taipei-Keelung Greater Metropolitan Area, with 6.52 million residents and 42.61 percent of Taiwan's urban population. The Kaohsiung Greater Metropolitan Area is second with 2.73 million residents, and the Taichung-Changhua Greater Metropolitan Area is the third most populous, with 2.09 million people. The earliest census taken in Taiwan recorded the island's population at 3.12 million in 1905. After 40 years, the figure nearly doubled to 6.02 million. The population further increased to 7.39 million in 1949 due to the influx of migrants from the Chinese mainland. The next year, the natural rate of population increase peaked at 3.84 percent. A baby boom in the postwar years put excessive population pressure on Taiwan's economy, and the ROC government began encouraging family planning. By 2000, the population growth rate had dropped to 0.83 percent. The birth rate rose from 1.29 percent in 1999 to 1.38 percent in 2000, while the death rate slightly dropped from 0.573 percent in 1999 to 0.568 percent in 2000. Clearly, the population structure has undergone great changes over the last few decades. As those born during the baby boom have grown to maturity, the economically productive 15-to-64 age group increased to 70.26 percent of the total population in 2000. Meanwhile, the proportion of dependents dropped from 64 percent in 1975 to 42 percent in 2000. Longer education, delayed marriages, and comparatively fewer potential mothers between the ages of 20 and 34 have reduced the birth rate. Since 1984, the population replacement rate has remained below 1 percent, dropping to 0.8 percent in 2000.
Population PolicyThe average age in the Taiwan area is rising. According to 1999 figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the average life expectancy in the Taiwan area was 75.04 years, with men living an average of 72.46 years, and women, 78.12 years. In 2000, 8.62 percent of the population was over 65 years of age, up from 8.44 percent in 1999. This puts Taiwan midway between "older" countries like Great Britain (16 percent), France (15 percent), Japan (13 percent), and the United States (13 percent) and "younger neighbors" like the Chinese mainland and South Korea (6 percent each), and Thailand and the Philippines (4 percent each).The Taiwan index of aging, calculated by dividing the number of people over 65 years of age by the number under the age of 15, is 40.9 percent. A national population policy and policy guidelines on Taiwan's aging population were revised by the Ministry of the Interior and approved by the Executive Yuan in November 1992. Contrary to past family planning programs aimed at curtailing population growth, the ministry now proposes a moderate increase. "Two are just right" 兩個恰恰好 is the new family planning slogan. The ROC government's population policy and national family planning program received top marks among developing countries from the US Population Crisis Committee in 1987, 1992, and 1997.
Gender ImbalanceAmong the 307,200 births registered in the Taiwan area in 2000, there were 109.45 boys for every 100 baby girls.The ratio in Taiwan reflects the traditional preference among Asian parents for boys, which has led to an imbalance, as certain private hospitals and small clinics in Taiwan ignore the ban on using chorionic villus sampling to determine fetus gender and perform abortions for parents who do not want a girl. Many young Taiwan newlyweds plan to have only one child for economic and lifestyle reasons. In 1965, 72 percent of parents wanted two children, but the percentage had decreased to 24 percent by 1991. Tradition favors male descendants, thus, parents who only want one child usually prefer a boy. In 1965, only 6 percent of potential mothers preferred their first child to be a baby boy; but by 1991, some 52 percent preferred boys.
According to 2000 figures, among families having more than one child, the male-to-female ratio was 107:100 for the first born, 108:100 for the second child, 119:100 for the third; and 135:100 for the fourth. Some medical professionals have suggested that the situation is a result of the 1985 promulgation of the Genetic Health Law 優生保健法, which allows abortion 24 weeks into pregnancy if the fetus is found to have a congenital defect. The law may have been used by some doctors as a pretext for performing otherwise illegal abortions. However, according to a survey by the Family Planning Institute, the abortion rate in Taiwan increased only slightly after the Genetic Health Law was enacted.
Best viewed with Netscape 4.x or IE 5.x (medium font) at 800 x 600 True Color (32 bit) resolution
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||