Taipei has the highest proportion of residents who have dependents, at more than half last year, data released by the Ministry of the Interior on Monday showed.
It is also where the heaviest financial burden is placed on the “sandwich generation” — those who need to support at least one child and at least one parent.
The “dependency ratio” climbed to more than 50 percent in Taipei for the first time last year, meaning that for every two working-age residents (aged 15 to 64) there is one family dependent, defined as younger than 14 or older than 65.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
The nation’s aging index is the number of people aged 65 or older divided by the number of people aged 14 and younger, multiplied by 100.
Chiayi County had the highest score in the index last year at 252.45, followed by Keelung at 196.12, Kinmen County at 196.01, Nantou County at 195.74 and Pingtung County at 193.08.
Keelung posted the biggest increase, rising from 184.22 in 2021, while Kinmen recorded the second-biggest increase, followed by Nantou.
In the six special municipalities, Taipei has the highest aging index at 166.1, followed by Kaohsiung at 161.78, while Taoyuan had the lowest score at 101.89.
Taoyuan still trailed Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, which scored 87.03 and 86.71 respectively. The two regions are the only places in Taiwan where the younger population is bigger than the elderly population.
Regarding families that support elderly parents, Taipei surpassed Chiayi County, with a dependency ratio of 31.44 percent, up from 29.76 percent in 2021. Chiayi County’s ratio was 31.12 percent.
Hsinchu City has the highest dependency ratio for young people at 23.38 percent, followed by Hsinchu County at 22.27 percent and Taoyuan at 19.54 percent.
The lowest financial burden placed on the “sandwich generation” was in Kinmen County and other outlying islands, as they have the most social welfare benefits, subsidies and incentives for residents, ministry officials said.
Many people who are registered as living on outlying islands, work and live on Taiwan’s main island, so their dependency ratio does not reflect the actual situation and cannot be used for comparison, officials said.
House ownership in Taiwan has increased, while there has also been a growth in single-person households, which made up 35 percent of all households nationwide. It is the highest ratio in the nation’s history.
There were 3.22 million single-person households last year, 1.91 million two-person households and 1.64 million three-person households, a record high for all three.
A decade ago, single, two and three-person households totaled 770,000, 340,000 and 150,000 respectively.
Households of four or more people totaled 2.65 million 10 years ago, but dropped to a record low 2.31 million last year, or 25.4 percent of the nation’s total.
The number of four-person households ranged from 1.3 million to 1.34 million throughout most of the past decade, but dropped below 1.3 million in 2020 and plunged to 1.26 million last year.
The average household has 2.56 people living in it, also a record low.
This indicates that the traditional three-generation nuclear family is fast disappearing, officials said, adding that people registered in households might not be related, but the trend shows that the family composition of Taiwan’s population is changing.
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
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS