Keelung last year became the nation’s “loneliest” city, with one-person households making up more than 41 percent of its households, the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior showed.
As of the end of last year, there were more than 3.57 million one-person households nationwide, accounting for 37.67 percent of the total households, the data showed.
The nation’s population spiked to a record 23.6 million in 2019 before consecutively declining year by year to 23.4 million last year.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, similar to Japan, the number of households climbed to about 9.49 million from about 8.83 million over the same period, despite the population shrinking, mainly because nuclear families were decreasing.
The number of one-person or two-people households has been rising over the past decade, meaning that households of people living alone or childless couples were increasing.
The number of one-person or two-people households increased to more than 5.59 million last year, or 59 percent of households, while households of four people or more declined over the same period, the data showed.
The number of households of five people or more — which were mostly three-generation families — dropped to about 985,000 last year, or 10.3 percent, dipping to fewer than 1 million for the first time.
Keelung was the “loneliest” among all administrative regions with its one-person households reaching 41.61 percent, while its households of six people or more accounted for 2.42 percent, the lowest in Taiwan.
It was followed by Taitung County and Taipei respectively, of which one-person households surpassed 40 percent each, the data showed.
The least lonely administrative region was Changhua County, of which one-person households made up 30.61 percent, while households of six people or more reached 9.66 percent, third behind Kinmen and Matsu (Lienchiang) counties.
As of June last year, the number of households of people aged 65 or older living alone was more than 1.03 million, up by about 300,000 people from 727,000 in August 2018.
Meanwhile, among the 19 administrative areas in Taiwan proper, only Taoyuan and Hsinchu County had positive natural population growth.
Yunlin County had the highest birthrate and death rate.
Of the six major cities, Taoyuan residents were the most willing to have children, while New Taipei City residents were the least willing.
The Taipei City Government was the most generous nationwide in terms of birth subsidies with NT$40,000 for the first child, NT$45,000 for the second and NT$50,000 for more.
Thanks to the boosted birth subsidies, the natural population decline in Taipei was 2,612 people last year, down from 4,330 people in 2023 and 6,255 people in 2022, the data showed.
The Yunlin County Government’s birth subsidy of NT$30,000 for each of the first three newborns remained unchanged, while the subsidy for the fourth newborn or more was raised to NT$100,000. The county had the highest birthrate last year.
New Taipei City, which had the lowest birthrate among the six major cities over the past few years, earlier this year increased its subsidies to NT$30,000 for the first newborn, NT$40,000 for the second and NT$50,000 for more.
Although Taipei provides the highest birth subsidies and has diminishing natural population decline, last year its social population decline gained speed, meaning that soaring house prices kept driving people away from the city.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS