Demographics of Taiwan

Demographics Of Taiwan

This article is about the demographic features of the population in Taiwan, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

The population in Taiwan was estimated in July 2012 at 23,268,087, spread across a total land area of 35,980 km², making it the sixteenth most densely populated country in the world with a population density of 641 people per km².

The original population of Taiwan consists of Taiwanese aborigines who are genetically related to Austronesian peoples, with a mitochondrial DNA contribution from a Polynesian maternal ancestor, and linguists classify their languages as Austronesian. Immigration of Han Chinese to the Penghu islands started as early as the 13th century, while settlement of the main island occurred from the 16th century, stimulated by the import of workers from Fujian by the Dutch in the 17th century. According to governmental statistics, 96% of Taiwan's population is now made up of Han Chinese, while only 2% are Taiwanese aborigines. Half the population are followers of one or a mixture of 25 recognized religions. Around 93% of the religious population are followers of a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, while a minority 4.5% are followers of Christianity.

During the 20th century the population of Taiwan rose more than sevenfold, from 3.04 million in 1905 to 22.3 at December 31, 2000. This high growth was caused by a combination of factors, very high fertility rates up to the 1960s, and low mortality rates, and a surge in population as the Chinese Civil War ended, and the Kuomintang forces retreated, bringing an influx of two million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 1948 - 1949. Consequently, the natural growth of Taiwan was very rapid, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, with an effective growth rate as high as 36.8 per 1,000 during 1951-1956. Including the Kuomintang forces, which accounted in 1950 for about 25% of all persons on Taiwan, immigration of mainland Chinese (now approximately 13% of the present population) at the end of the 1940s was a major factor in the high population growth of Taiwan. Some official government statistics for the period, including those reported on this page, do not seem consistent with the known size of the Kuomintang influx.

Fertility rates decreased gradually thereafter, and in 1984 the rate reached the replacement level (2.1 children per women, which is needed to replace the existing population). Fertility rates have continued to decline and in 2010 Taiwan was experiencing a population growth of less than 0.2% and a fertility rate of only 0.9, which is the lowest rate ever recorded in Taiwan. The population of Taiwan is projected to reach a maximum of little over 23.4 million between 2020 and 2025, and will decrease thereafter.

The official national language is Mandarin, although a majority also speak Taiwanese (dialect of Min Nan; a Southern Fujian language) and Hakka. Japanese speakers are becoming rare as the elderly generation who lived under Japanese rule are dying out. Aboriginal languages are gradually becoming extinct as the aborigines have become acculturated despite a program by the ROC government to preserve the languages.