The number of centenarians in Taiwan exceeded 5,000 for the first time last year and remained above 5,000 this year despite a small year-on-year decrease, Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed.
Last year there were 5,076 centenarians in the country, and there are 5,011 this year, which is 2.3 times the number recorded from 10 years ago, statistics showed.
A total of 3,036 of the centenarians in the country are women, accounting for 65 percent of the total, the data showed.
Photo courtesy of the Sinying District Office
A total of forty-five of those people are over 110 years old this year, with the oldest woman in the group being 119 years old, and the oldest man being 114 years old.
The statistics also showed that the average life expectancy in the country is rising, with men living to 76.63 years on average and women to 83.28 years.
Every year, the Presidential Office and the ministry hand out gold-plated medallions to those aged 100 or older, as well as commemorative certificates to those just turning 100.
The government this year budgeted NT$44.71 million for the purchase of the medallions, which was a new record, the ministry said.
“In the 1960s, the average lifespan in Taiwan was only about 45 years, but by the 1990s it grew to more than 60 years, and has now reached the 80s,” Executive Yuan Long-term Care Promotion Group convencer Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said.
“As we age, long-term healthcare becomes more important, and it is also important to keep a positive attitude and not be afraid of aging,” he said.
Ministry of Health and Welfare Deputy Minister Lee Li-fen (李麗芬), on Oct. 21 said that the government passed the “White Paper on an Aging Society” in 2021, hoping to build an “autonomous, self-reliant, integrated, and sustainable” elderly society.
“Under plans formulated last year, the government is to invest an estimated NT$120 billion over four years in building a self-reliant and resilient aged society,” she said.
“There is to be cross-governmental agency cooperation on the issue, which was first raised in a white paper in 2021.”
The government has established 4,633 community care centers nationwide to help the elderly, including 2,757 that are implementing the long-term 2.0 policy and providing preventive and delayed disability care services, she said.
“We eventually plan to have more than 7,000 long-term care facilities, which would provide services to the elderly, and allow people to eat meals together and participate in health promotion activities together,” she said.
It is still common in Taiwan for elderly people to be bedridden and dependent on others for up to eight years before they pass away, Taiwan Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics director-general Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰) said.
Authorities should work to foster healthy living habits from a younger age, which would also include financial planning for old age, he said.
In the future, long-term care policies would mean better facilities, but also outreach care services, accessible transportation and promotion of an active lifestyle, he said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
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 —
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
RSS