Taiwan’s population shrank by 0.99 percent — or more than 230,000 people — year-on-year last month, statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior showed.
The population as of the end of last month was 23,198,133, down 232,815 people compared with 23,430,948 in the same month last year, the data showed.
The loss was much bigger than the 0.58 percent decline — or 137,430 fewer people — in September last year from the same month in 2020, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
It was also far greater than the population drop of 25,405, or 0.11 percent in September 2020 compared with the same month in 2019, the data showed.
In January, officials at the ministry and the National Development Council attributed Taiwan’s population decline last year to a fall in the number of immigrants and people returning to the nation as a result of strict border controls amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the decline might have been because of bookkeeping factors rather than the actual movement of people, the officials said.
The ministry has said that local household registration offices are required to record people as having left Taiwan if immigration records show they have not been in the country for two years.
With COVID-19 border controls in place, people have not returned to Taiwan to keep their household registrations valid, resulting in an apparent decline in the population, they said.
Others factors in the decline have been Taiwan’s low birthrate and high mortality rate due to a rapidly aging population, the ministry said.
Those factors have contributed to a negative population growth rate since February 2020.
In terms of month-on-month comparisons with August, Taiwan’s population at the end of last month grew 3,579 from the previous month, the third straight month that it has risen, the data showed.
Taiwan recorded 12,217 births last month, down 1,247 from the same month last year, but up 315 from August, the data showed.
Meanwhile, 16,505 people died last month, an increase of 2,611 compared with the same month last year, but down 1,325 from August, the data showed.
The number of immigrants last month was 95,826, an increase of 2,739 compared with the same month last year, but down 3,820 from August, they showed.
A total of 87,959 residents moved overseas last month, a decrease of 25,587 compared with the same period last year and a drop of 1,269 from August, indicating that fewer people were being stricken from the household registration rolls, officials said.
Overall, Taiwan had 7,867 more people registered as new immigrants than people who departed Taiwan last month.
Regarding marriages, 11,546 couples registered weddings last month, the second-highest total so far this year, compared with 4,315 in August, the lowest number this year, the data showed.
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