Taiwan's deaths exceed births by over 12,000 in Q1

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) Taiwan continued to record a population decline in the first quarter of this year, as the nation's deaths outnumbered births by more than 12,000 in the past three months, according to the latest statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

During the first quarter, the number of deaths was 47,626, surpassing the number of births, which stood at 34,917, according to the MOI data.

The number of births fell by 5,497 or 13.6 percent from the same period of last year, while the number of deaths increased by 659 or 1.4 percent year-on-year, the data showed.

Taiwan's population experienced negative growth for the first time in 2020, with 165,249 births and 173,156 deaths, according to the previous MOI data.

Among the 34,917 births in the first quarter, 18,031 were male infants, 16,886 were female infants.

The crude birth rate was 6.01 per 1,000 in Q1, according to the latest statistics.

In general, the number of births in Q1 showed a decline from last year. In January, the number of births dropped to below the 10,000-mark for the first time in history, with 9,601 babies born, while 11,497 were born in February and 13,819 in March.

Meanwhile, the country also saw a negative net migration in the first three months of the year when 2.25 million people moved in, while 2.48 million moved out, down 7.34 percent and up 2.04 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

The statistics showed that as of the end of March, Taiwan's total population stood at 23,525,623, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier, or a loss of 194.2 people on average per day.

Scholars have attributed the declining number of births to the lower number of marriages, the MOI said. In the first quarter, 28,755 got married, down 13.25 percent from the same period last year, MOI data showed.

At the same time, the number of divorces also fell by 6.92 percent to a total of 11,691 from a year earlier, according to the data.