The average household size in Taiwan last year was 2.5 people per household, a record low, while single-person households increased to 3,320,380, accounting for 35.9 percent of households, a record high, the Ministry of the Interior’s latest statistics showed.
The “loneliest” county is Penghu County, with single-person households accounting for more than 40 percent of its households, while Taipei is the “loneliest” among the six special municipalities, with more than 410,000 single-person households, accounting for about 39.2 percent of the city’s households.
The total number of households nationwide has increased year by year, from about 8.28 million in 2013 to about 9.24 million last year, an increase of about 1 million households in a decade.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
In the same period, with the aging population and low birthrate, increasingly more people are living alone, with single-person households increasing from 2,530,995 to 3,323,808, an increase from 30.5 percent to 35.9 percent of households.
Moreover, the number of households with “three generations under one roof” (multigenerational) is rapidly decreasing.
By the end of last year, there were more than 5.28 million single-person or two-people households, accounting for 57.1 percent of all households, but the number of multigenerational households with five members or more have dropped to about 1.036 million, which is about 255,000 households fewer than the 1.291 million 10 years ago.
New Taipei City has the most single-person households, reaching more than 634,000, but Penghu County has the highest percentage at 41.9 percent, followed by Keelung at 39.9 percent and Taipei at 39.2 percent.
The least “lonely” county is Changhua County, with single-person households accounting for about 27.9 percent of its households, and it is the only city or county with a rate lower than 30 percent. The county pays the lowest average monthly contribution to labor pensions while having the highest crude birthrate in the nation.
A ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, on Friday said Taiwan is becoming a “lonely society” like Japan, with the number of multigenerational households decreasing and the number of “standard families” — a married couple with two children — also decreasing.
The reasons are that the number of unmarried people is increasing, that increasingly more elderly people are not living with their children for various reasons, and that those who are single or do not have children will eventually become old, so there would be more elderly people living alone, the official said.
When “families” are gradually becoming smaller, the impact to the society is difficult to estimate, the official said, adding that the most obvious impact is that more elderly people are expected to no longer live in a familiar environment, and hospitals and nursing homes might be overwhelmed with demand.
Meanwhile, only 48.47 percent of women were married last year, a record low, according to the ministry’s latest population statistics.
Among women in the “ideal marriage age” range as recommended by the Health Promotion Administration — 25 to 35 years old — only 17.72 percent of women aged 25 to 29 were married last year, which was previously 23.76 percent, and 41.41 percent of women aged 30 to 34 were married, which was previously 52.63 percent. The average and median of first marriage age of women were above 30, the ministry’s statistics showed.
The average first marriage age was delayed year by year, with men being 30.19 years old and women being 30.1 years old in 2022, and the median of first marriage age was 32.6 in men and 30.7 in women last year — both the average and median age marked a record high.
Aside from getting married late, more people choose not to be married. The marriage rate among women dropped to 48.37 percent last year from 50.64 in 10 years.
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