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Demographics of Taiwan
Population pyramid of Taiwan
Population	23,347,374 (April 2023)
Growth rate	0.04% (2022 est.)
Birth rate	5.8 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
Death rate	8.8 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
Life expectancy	81.16 years
• male	78.17 years
• female	84.34 years
Fertility rate	0.85 children born/woman (2023 est.)
Infant mortality rate	3.97 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate	0.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	12.22%
15–64 years	69.72%
65 and over	18.07%
Sex ratio
Total	0.97 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
At birth	1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.06 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.73 male(s)/female
Nationality
Nationality	Taiwanese
Major ethnic	Han Chinese
Language
Official	Mandarin

The population of Taiwan is approximately 23.35 million as of April 2023.

Immigration of Han Chinese to the Penghu Islands started as early as the 13th century. The main island was inhabited by a diversity of Taiwanese indigenous peoples speaking Austronesian languages until Han settlement began in the early 17th century, around the time of the Ming–Qing transition, when workers were imported from Fujian to the colony of Dutch Formosa in the southwest of Taiwan. According to governmental statistics, in the early 21st century, 95% to 97% of Taiwan's population are Han Chinese, while about 2.3% are Taiwanese of Austronesian ethnicity. Half the population are followers of one or a mixture of 25 recognized religions.

During the 20th century, the population of Taiwan rose more than sevenfold, from about 3 million in 1905 to more than 22 million by 2001. This high growth was caused by a combination of factors, such as very high fertility rates up to the 1960s, and low mortality rates. In addition, there was a surge in population as the Chinese Civil War ended and the Kuomintang (KMT) forces retreated, bringing an influx of 1.2 million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 1948–1949, representing less than 15% of the population at the time (who constitute approximately 10% of the population in 2004). Consequently, the population growth rate after that was very rapid, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, with an effective annual growth rate as high as 3.68% during 1951–1956.

Fertility rates decreased gradually thereafter; in 1984 the rate reached the replacement level (2.1 children per woman, which is needed to replace the existing population). Fertility rates have continued to decline. In 2010, Taiwan had a population growth of less than 0.2% and a fertility rate of only 0.9, the lowest rate ever recorded in that country. The population of Taiwan peaked at 23.6 million in 2019 and has been continuously decreasing ever since, raising fears of an aging population.

Most Taiwanese speak Mandarin. Around 70% of the people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien and 10% speak Hakka. Japanese speakers are becoming rare as the elderly generation who lived under Japanese colonization are dying out. The Formosan languages are endangered as the indigenous peoples have become acculturated under Chinese culture.

Population

According to February 2022 statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the population of Taiwan was 23,319,776, 99.6% of whom live on the island of Taiwan. The remaining 0.4% live on offshore islands (Penghu, Lanyu, Green, Kinmen, and Matsu).

Taiwan is ranked the 58th most populous country in the world.

Historical

The number of Chinese people living on the island in 1624, prior to Dutch colonial rule, was about 25,000. During Dutch Formosa rule, between 1624 and 1662, the Dutch began to encourage large-scale Han immigration to the island for labour, mainly from the south of Fujian.

It is estimated that prior to the Kingdom of Tungning (1661), the population of Taiwan was no greater than 100,000 people, and the initial Zheng army with families and retainers that settled in Taiwan is estimated to be 30,000 at minimum. During Qing rule (1683–1895), the population of Han Chinese in Taiwan grew rapidly from 100,000 to ≈2.5 million, while the aboriginal population was estimated to be at least 200,000 by 1895. (The plains aboriginal population is estimated to have decreased by 90% over the hundred years from 1800 to 1900.)

The Japanese Colonial Government performed detailed censuses every five years starting in 1905. Statistics showed a population growth rate of about 1% to 3% per year throughout Japanese rule. In 1905, the population of Taiwan was roughly 3 million; by 1940, the population had grown to 5.87 million, and after the Second World War in 1946 it numbered 6.09 million.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Population census

Details

• Date:2019/07-08

• Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs, Taiwan Archived 2020-04-30 at the Wayback Machine

Net migration rate

During 2004 – 2010, Taiwan's migration rate was positive. On average, the annual net migration amounted to 22,000 people during that period, which is equivalent to a rate of 1.0 per 1,000 inhabitants per year.

Age structure

Sex ratio

under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

15–24 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

25–54 years: 1.00 male(s)/female

55–64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female

total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2018 est)

Population growth and age structure

Demographic transition models (DTM) show how population pyramids change and go through specific stages. By looking at Taiwan's population pyramid, the country is in stage 4 of the DTM and its shape contracts but it will soon enter stage 5. In stage 5 of the DTM, death rate gradually exceeds fertility rate and a country starts to experience overall population loss. Access to good medical care increases the lifespan of a population. Knowledge of and access to contraception, along with an increase in women's participation in the workforce, cause a sharp decline in the fertility rate.

National statistics of Taiwan in 2018 indicate that there are approximately 140,000 more females than males. The birth rate (8.3 births/1,000 population) is slightly higher than the death rate (7.4 deaths/1,000 population). The total dependency ratio in Taiwan is 35.2%, which is relatively low. The low dependency ratio indicates that the dependent part of the population is less than half of the working part. Experts estimate the dependency ratio will rise to 92.9% by 2060. A rising dependency ratio and longer life expectancy will most likely require the government to support part of the elderly population as the working-age population is shrinking and thus less able to support the elderly directly.

Demographic transition and population aging

The process of population aging is primarily determined by fertility and mortality rate. The proportions of elderly people are different across countries. For example, developing countries with limited access to healthcare and contraceptives, where populations have a high fertility rate, tend to have a lower proportion of older people. Medical advancements, industrial developments, and better knowledge of sanitation, which started in the 18th century in many developed countries, have caused a decline in mortality rates and an increase in fertility rates, factors which raise the number of older people worldwide. According to the United Nations, many developed countries are in more advanced stages (4 or 5) of the demographic transition model and their number of elderly will remain high compared to less developed countries. This phenomenon is known as population aging.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), since 1993, Taiwan has reached the threshold of an aging society. It was estimated the percentage of people over 65 was 8%. The CEPD estimated that the percentage of people 65 years or older will be over 20% in 2025, which means Taiwan will soon become a "super aged society". The critical factors that accelerate the speed of aging in Taiwan are high life expectancy and low fertility rate. The average life expectancy in 2014 was 80 years. The total fertility rate in 2014 was 1.1 (per 1,000 women) and dropped to 0.87 in 2022.

According to a 2015 study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, approximately 40% of Taiwan elders see themselves as a burden on family or society.

Ethnicity

The ROC government reports that 95 to 97 percent of Taiwan's population is of the Han Chinese ethnicity, which includes Hoklo, Hakka, and other ethnic groups originating from mainland China. Over 2% of the population consists of indigenous Taiwanese. 21,000 Westerners live in Taiwan, accounting for 0.1% of its total population.

Indigenous Taiwanese

The total population of recognized indigenous people in Taiwan is approximately 569,000, or approximately 2.38% of Taiwan's population. These groups primarily inhabit the eastern half of Taiwan, which consists mostly of mountainous terrain. Their population growth rate (1.2%) and population pyramid are considerably more youthful than the overall population. Including migrant workers, the Austronesian population of Taiwan is approaching 1 million.

Note: Source data obtained from the Ministry of the Interior website (Spreadsheet data: m1-04.xls Archived 2017-06-20 at the Wayback Machine)

The Taiwanese government officially recognizes sixteen ethnic groups of Taiwanese indigenous peoples (Chinese: 原住民; pinyin: yuánzhùmín; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gôan-chū-bîn). In the early 1910s, research in the Japanese era recognized nine ethnic groups: Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Tsou, and Yami. After the 2000s, indigenous cultural revitalization movements forced the government to change its attitude towards the indigenous people of Taiwan. The Yami people were renamed to Tao. New ethnic groups were also recognized by the government, including Thao in 2001, Kavalan in 2002, Truku (Taroko) in 2004, Sakizaya in 2007, Seediq in 2008, Kanakanavu in 2014, and Saaroa in 2014. There are at least another dozen groups that are not officially recognized by the government.

Unrecognized indigenous groups may include extinct tribes (mostly Plains indigenous peoples) or communities currently classified with other groups. There are also 25,943 indigenous people who are currently not classified in any group.

Han Chinese

The majority of Han Chinese descend from immigrants who arrived to the island prior to Japanese rule (1895–1945) and can be classified as the Hoklo and Hakka, on the basis of language and customs. As the majority of early immigrants were Hokkien speakers from Fujian who arrived starting in the 17th century, the Hoklos account for about 70% of the total population today. During Qing rule, a large number of Hoklo men took indigenous brides. Some of the plains aboriginals also adopted Chinese customs and language so as to be indistinguishable from the Han. Thus, many who categorize themselves as Han have some degree of indigenous ancestry.

A significant minority of Han Chinese are Hakka, and they constitute about 15% of the total population. The Hakkas emigrated chiefly from eastern Guangdong, speak Hakka Chinese, and originally took up residence in the hills of the indigenous border districts.

Waishengren form another significant mixed ethnic group in Taiwan. The term refers to migrants who moved from China to Taiwan between 1945, when the ROC took control of Taiwan from the Japanese empire, and 1949 during the relocation of the ROC from mainland China to Taiwan. Estimates vary regarding how many waishengren migrated, with most estimates ranging between 950,000 and 2 million, with 1.2 million being the most commonly cited figure in Taiwan, which would have constituted less than 15% of the population at the time (who constitute approximately 10% of the population in 2004).

Foreign residents

There are 812,603 foreign residents in Taiwan as of April 2023, representing 3.48% of the country's population.

Nationality	2023 (Dec.)	2022 (Sep.)	2021 (Sep.)	2019	% in 2023
Indonesia	278,991	234,329	254,403	255,770	33.15%
Vietnam	255,627	234,100	247,817	224,108	30.37%
Philippines	151,198	154,075	156,996	152,179	17.96%
Thailand	77,114	72,061	67,308	64,381	9.16%
Malaysia	24,323	23,749	22,819	20,549	2.89%
Japan	14,136	15,956	16,160	13,768	1.68%
United States	11,288	11,462	12,847	9,979
India	5,320	4,671	4,695	3,748	0.63%
South Korea	4,820	4,843	5,132	4,481	0.57%
Myanmar	4,217	2,611	1,852	1,671	0.50%
United Kingdom	2,559	2,989	2,961	2,097	0.30%
Canada	2,528	2,579	2,737	2,167	0.30%
Singapore	1,863	1,766	1,726	1,456	0.22%
France	1,673	1,841	1,790	1,553	0.20%
South Africa	1,545	1,539	1,416	1,207	0.18%
Germany	1,135	1,271	1,224	965	0.13%
Australia	937	985	1,051	838	0.11%
Russia	787	680	663	578	0.09%
Eswatini	642	412		363	0.08%
Mongolia	560	500	684	1,126	0.07%
Cambodia	543	359		164	0.06%
Italy	522	523	579	489	0.06%
Pakistan	498	297		186	0.06%
Paraguay	419	328		176	0.05%
Spain	411	492	473	390	0.05%
Belize	384	334		181	0.05%
Netherlands	383	531	512	346	0.05%
Turkey	328	284	311	279	0.04%
New Zealand	296	328	352	313	0.04%
Portugal	296	300	312	217	0.04%
Brazil	292	259	261	307	0.03%
Poland	291	311	285	217	0.03%
Honduras	269	374		288	0.03%
Ukraine	263	214	230	245	0.03%
Mexico	259	229	226	196	0.03%
Ethiopia	215	164		181	0.03%
Guatemala	213	199		138	0.03%
Belgium	205	254	302	198	0.02%
Saint Lucia	204	170		102	0.02%
Iran	189	163		118	0.02%
Haiti	185	158		148	0.02%
Ireland	178	216		165	0.02%
Nepal	167	164		159	0.02%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	167	140		104	0.02%
Switzerland	167	181	219	168	0.02%
Egypt	158	157		87	0.02%
Sweden	158	152		125	0.02%
Israel	155	151		105	0.02%
stateless	143				0.02%
Nigeria	139	116		81	0.02%
Colombia	135	128		106	0.02%
Austria	128	126		117	0.02%
Nicaragua	127	141		183	0.02%
Bangladesh	110	94		62
Kyrgyzstan	106	61		45
Sri Lanka	106	109		95
Denmark	104	284		147
Czech Republic	103	92		101
Gambia	101	100		122
Saint Kitts and Nevis	96	96		73
Jordan	95	95		80
Peru	92	104		85
Tanzania	84	64
Hungary	83	86		79
Malawi	80	54		60
Belarus	77	78		65
El Salvador	74	90		125
Venezuela	72	81		88
Argentina	63	61		57
Uganda	62	43		19
Laos	60	54		41
Chile	59	65		48
Palau	55	66		48
Romania	54	63
Burkina Faso	53	55		65
Kenya	52	41		32
Uzbekistan	50	46		38
Ecuador	45	42		42
Morocco	45	33		30
Marshall Islands	44	52		43
Tuvalu	42	34		30
Slovakia	41	48		41
Panama	40	52		83
Burundi	39	29		15
Kazakhstan	38	25		22
Finland	34	43		37
Norway	34	28		28
Lithuania	33	41
Nauru	33	31		24
Greece	32	29		25
Croatia	31	39		31
Serbia	31	28		21
Ghana	30	30		28
Yemen	29	16		11
Costa Rica	26	18		17
Bulgaria	25	24		18
Papua New Guinea	25	32		27
Zimbabwe	25	16		17
Dominican Republic	23	27		43
Latvia	23	35		17
Mauritius	22	27		23
Bolivia	20	22		15
North Macedonia	18	17		14
Slovenia	17	16		23
Armenia	16	13		21
Fiji	16	13		8
Solomon Islands	16	15		88
Brunei	15	14		21
Lesotho	15	7		4
Mozambique	15	4		6
Palestine	15	11		6
Lebanon	14	17		9
Zambia	14	8		6
Democratic Republic of the Congo	13	6		6
Senegal	13	6		4
Bhutan	12	10		7
Tunisia	12	11		11
Turkmenistan	12	13		13
Estonia	10	8		11
Jamaica	10	8		5
Syria	10	10		9
Uruguay	10	12		13
Algeria	9	8		9
Republic of the Congo	8	13		10
Tajikistan	8	5		6
Botswana	7	5		5
Cameroon	7	7		8
Chad	7	6		6
Kiribati	7	4		85
Iceland	6	8		3
Albania	5	5		2
Moldova	5	4		9
Namibia	5	6		7
Sierra Leone	5	3		6
Timor-Leste	5	4		4
Togo	5	3		2
Tonga	5	4		6
Azerbaijan	4	3		3
Benin	4	5		2
Cuba	4	2		5
Georgia	4	6		9
Guinea	4	1		3
Rwanda	4	2		3
Sudan	4	4		7
Trinidad and Tobago	4	6		4
Bahamas	3	1
Bahrain	3	2		2
Cyprus	3	5		2
Guyana	3	3
Ivory Coast	3	4		4
Libya	3	2		4
Luxembourg	3	8
Madagascar	3	1		2
Maldives	3	3		2
Malta	3	2		2
Niger	3	3		4
Samoa	3	2
Saudi Arabia	3	2		3
Gabon	2	1		1
Grenada	2	1
Guinea-Bissau	2	2		1
Mali	2	2		3
Oman	2	3		4
São Tomé and Príncipe	2			3
Suriname	2	2		1
Vanuatu	2	2		1
Afghanistan	1	2		1
Barbados	1	1		1
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	1
Dominica	1	3		1
Federated States of Micronesia	1	1		1
Liberia	1
Liechtenstein	1
Mauritania	1
Seychelles	1	1		1
United Arab Emirates	1	1
Angola	0			1
Bermuda	0			1
Cape Verde	0			1
Djibouti	0	1
Iraq	0	19		17
Kuwait	0	1
Somalia	0			2
Total	841,627	783,662		772,281	100.0%
Source: National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior