Taiwan gets low marks from parents for 'child-friendliness': Survey

Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) Parents of young children gave Taiwan a score below 50 points out of 100 for child-friendliness, citing factors including a lack of sidewalk access for strollers, according to a new survey by the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF).

In the CWLF's "2024 Taiwan Child-Friendliness Survey for Families with Young Children," released on Tuesday, parents of children aged 0-6 gave Taiwan a subjective score of only 46.8 points for child-friendliness.

According to the survey, 57.5 percent of parents said they often felt "stressed" when taking their children out in public, while 56.3 percent felt Taiwanese society was "unfriendly" toward young children.

Those numbers were more or less unchanged from a previous version of the survey conducted in 2017, the CWLF said.

Of the 79 percent of parents who used strollers, 85.2 percent said they had had problems with uneven road or sidewalk surfaces, while 70.4 percent had issues with motorcycles or vendors blocking their way, the survey found.

Additionally, 64.8 percent of parents using strollers had contended with overly narrow sidewalks, 58.4 percent with other obstacles in their path, and 27 percent with intersections where they had to use an overpass or underpass, the results showed.

In terms of public transport, parents of young children preferred taking the MRT, Taiwan Railway trains and city buses -- in that order.

Despite the MRT being parents' most-favored mode of public transport, 37.9 percent of them said it lacked sufficient space for strollers, while 10.5 percent had received complaints from other riders about their children being too noisy.

As for taking the bus, 74 percent of parents said buses sometimes started moving before they had sat down, while 46.2 percent had had problems finding a seat or with a driver driving too fast, the survey found.

The survey results matter because Taiwan's government has put significant effort into reversing the country's declining birth rate, with little to show in return.

In 2023, the country's total fertility rate -- the number of births from a woman in her lifetime -- was only 0.865, and government projections show that the population could drop from today's 23.4 million to 14.97 million by 2070.

The CWLF conducted its survey via online questionnaire but has yet to release other details of its methodology and results.