Taiwan’s falling birth rate sends population towards ‘super-aged’ status
- The island recorded more deaths than births last year, meaning its population officially contracted for the first time
- The average Taiwanese woman gave birth to seven children in 1951, but now it is less than one
Wu En-tzu has delivered more than 2,000 babies working as an obstetrician but she has no desire to have children of her own – an increasingly common position taken by Taiwanese families.
Since they married 12 years ago, Wu and her surgeon husband have been on the same page when it comes to kids.
“I just can’t find one single reason that I must have a child,” she said at her office in an upscale clinic in Taipei. “It’s not just me. Now many young people think: ‘Why do I have to get married and have babies? I don’t necessarily have to follow the traditional family values.’”
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China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades
Last year the island recorded more deaths than births – a watershed moment that signals Taiwan’s population officially contracted for the first time. In the first quarter of this year, deaths outpaced births by 47,626 to 34,917.