Number of transnational marriages drops by half in 2020

Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) The number of marriages between Taiwanese and foreigners registered in 2020 in Taiwan fell by half to 11,000, possibly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Wednesday.

The transnational marriage figure last year was a drop of 50.1 percent from 2019, which is believed to be related to entry restrictions placed on foreigners entering Taiwan amid the pandemic, the DGBAS indicated, citing statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

Chinese nationals (including those from Hong Kong and Macau) still accounted for the majority of non-Taiwanese spouses registered in Taiwan last year, at 30.3 percent, followed by those from Vietnam at 27.3 percent, 7.4 percent from Japan and 7.1 percent from the United States.

Compared with 2019, the number of non-Taiwanese spouses in transnational marriages from various countries all registered declines, with Chinese spouses seeing the biggest drop at 61.5 percent, while spouses from the United States posted the smallest drop of just 0.9 percent, according to the data.

Among Taiwan's six special municipalities, most non-Taiwanese spouses registered their marriages in New Taipei, accounting for 19.7 percent, followed by 14.1 percent in Taipei and 11.4 percent each in Taoyuan and Taichung.

In Taiwan, a total of 122,000 couples registered their marriages last year, a decline of 13,000, or 9.5 percent, from the previous year, according to MOI statistics.

The number of registered marriages hit the highest level of 165,000 in 2011 and has since declined by an average of 3.3 percent per year, the data showed.