Fewer people are getting married nowadays, while those who do are doing so at an older age, figures from last year released by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) showed.
“A total of 116,392 couples registered their marriages last year — 32,033, or 21.6 percent, less than in 2008,” the ministry said in a press statement. “The sharp decrease was due to the global economic recession and the impact of guluan nian [孤鸞年] last year.”
Traditionally, people believe that couples married during guluan nian — or “the year of the widow” — will have an unhappy marriage.
The MOI said last year marked the first time in 40 years that less than 200,000 people got married.
Besides the decrease in the number of people who were married last year, the ministry also found that grooms and brides were getting older.
“The average age of first-time grooms last year was 31.6 and 28.9 for first-time brides — half a year older than in 2008 for both groups,” the statement said.
While the half-year difference may not seem very significant, the ministry said that as many as 36.94 percent, or 35,280, of all first-time grooms last year were between the age of 30 and 34, with the 25 to 29 age group following with 35.48 percent of all first-time grooms.
Almost 44 percent, or 43,275, of first-time brides were aged between 25 and 29 last year, the ministry said.
By city and region, people in Taipei seemed to be marrying older, with the average age of first-time grooms at 35.7 and 32 years for first-time brides.
Commenting on the figures, Modern Women’s Foundation executive director Yao Shu-wen (姚淑文) said that while the “year of the widow” belief may have played a role in the drop in marriages last year, social change, economic pressure and high divorce rates all played a more important role.
“With high divorce rates, a lot of people are afraid of getting married,” Yao said. “Besides, people may worry about the economic burden they have to carry when they have a family of their own.”
“Especially when people are becoming more economically independent, they may be more hesitant to get married,” she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS