Policies aimed at raising the birthrate are wrongly targeted with little consideration to low marriage rates and unwed parents, the National Audit Office said.
In the past four years, the government policies to address declining birthrates saw improvements in daycare facilities and services, but little to no effort has been made to increase marriage rates, the office’s most recent general budget audit report said.
The audit office referred to studies by Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology research fellow Alice Cheng (鄭雁馨) stating that the rising rates of unmarried individuals and childless marriages are vital points that would influence future birthrates.
More than 80 percent of government funding goes toward caring for children under six to encourage couples to have more children by subsidizing the family’s expenditure on their first child.
However, as of last year, the rate of women aged 20 to 44 who had given birth to a second or third child dropped in comparison with 2017.
The report also said that 96 percent of newborns were from married couples.
As of last year, 63.1 percent of men aged 20 to 44 were unmarried, up by 2.98 percentage points compared with 2017, it said.
Meanwhile, 49.48 percent of women in the same age group were also unmarried, down by 2.84 percentage points compared with 2017, it said.
Current policies have placed too much focus on financial support and a family-friendly work environment, but they have ignored the number of unmarried people, the report said.
It also said that bringing in professionals on population policy to act as consultants would help address the declining birthrate.
Teaching the importance of marriage and family values to future generations is critical in reversing the declining birthrate, it said, adding that currently policies on the matter exist, but there is no data to measure their efficacy.
The national birthrate decreased from 1.13 births per woman in 2017 to 0.98 births in 2021, showing that the Executive Yuan’s policies were ineffective in reversing the trend, the report said.
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