Topography of Taiwan - Human Geography

Human Geography

See also: Demographics of Taiwan, List of metropolitan areas in Taiwan, and History of Taiwan

Taiwan has a population of over 23 million, the vast majority of whom live in the lowlands near the western coast of the island. The island is highly urbanized, with nearly 9 million people living in the Taipei–Keelung–Taoyuan metropolitan area at the northern end, and over 2 million each in the urban areas of Kaohsiung and Taichung.

Taiwanese aborigines comprise approximately 2% of the population, and now mostly live in the mountainous eastern part of the island. Their ancestors arrived in Taiwan by sea from the mainland between 4000 and 3000 BC.

Han Chinese make up over 95% of the population. Immigrants from southern Fujian began to farm the area around modern Tainan and Kaohsiung from the 17th century, later spreading across the western and northern plains and absorbing the aboriginal population of those areas. Hakka people from eastern Guangzhou arrived later and settled the foothills further inland, but the rugged uplands of the eastern half of the island remained the exclusive preserve of the aborigines until the early 20th century. A further 1.3 million people from throughout mainland China entered Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.