Birth rate at record low of 0.91% in 2005, report reveals

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 6, 2006. It reports that Taiwan recorded a new low on birth rate in 2005 - 0.91 percent, down from 0.96 percent in 2004. The number of new births in Taiwan totalled 205,854 in 2005, making a 4.9-percent decline from the previous year.

Of all the newborns in 2005, 26,509 were born to non-Taiwanese mothers and accounted for 12.9 percent of the total, slightly down from 13.2 percent recorded in 2004. Among these babies, 10,022 were born to mothers from China, Hong Kong and Macau, while 16,487 were born to mothers from other countries.

Of the newborns, 197,572 were born to married couples, down 5.2 percent from the previous year, while 8,245 were born out of wedlock, up 4.5 percent and making up 4 percent of the total new births.

In 2005, the boy-girl ratio was 109 to 100. Statistics also show that 37 infants were abandoned or orphaned.

According to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Hong Kong reported a birth rate of 0.7 percent and Japan reported 0.9 percent. Taiwan's birth rate was lower than South Korea's 1 percent and China's 1.2 percent.