Taiwan’s falling birth rate due to marriage hesitancy

不願結婚導致台灣生育率下降

Economic pressure and uncertainty are delaying marriage plans for child rearing

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — For the past 20 years, Taiwan has faced a declining birth rate and the problem is only getting worse.

Last year, the number of newborns was just 138,000, and the fertility rate dropped to 0.87, both historical lows. This trend threatens economic growth and social stability.

At a press conference on Thursday (March 30) hosted by Business Today, stakeholders addressed the underlying causes of this issue, such as marriage hesitancy, economic concerns, lack of partners, and a lack of government support.

“A super aged society paired together with a low birth rate is a very big problem for society. We need to find solutions quickly through new research. Our birth rate has even fallen behind that of Europe and Japan. This makes me wonder why we can not be more successful in raising the birth rate, said Business Today President Liang Yung-haung (梁永煌).

Liang attributes Taiwan’s low birth rate to the economic pressure felt by young people. He believes the government has adopted the wrong attitude to the situation which is only bound to get worse.

“There’s no hope for Taiwan if we don’t solve this problem, and we hope that today we can have a new beginning and a better concept of this problem,” said Liang.

Later in the press conference, findings of a survey carried out by the publication in conjunction with Pollster were presented. The fertility rate of married women has actually grown since 2003, but the number of unmarried women has expanded year by year. According to statistics in 2021, the unmarried rate of Taiwan's marriageable population aged 25 to 4 reached 49.36%.

Furthermore, poll results showed that 56.2% of all unmarried people have the intention of getting married, with 69.58% of men wanting to get married, which is much higher than 45.91% of women. The lack of a partner as well as economic conditions are two major obstacles to marriage.

As for what the government can do to promote more marriages, some suggestions offered by survey participants include the creation of a marriage fund as well as housing subsidies for newlyweds. A few have even asked for straightforward benefits such as tax breaks.

Willingness to have children

Business Today found that among unmarried people, 61.22% of men want to have children, much higher than 42.98% of women. The greatest obstacle to raising children is money, as 70% of the survey respondents say they are afraid that they will not be able to support them.

In terms of age, people’s willingness to have children decreased with age, but even among unmarried people aged 40 to 49, 46.11% still expressed a desire to have children.

In recent years, in order to encourage more childbirths, central and local governments have successively introduced policies such as childcare allowances, childcare subsidies, parental leave, and other cash subsidies.

The survey found that less than 30% of respondents would be encouraged to have children because of these policies.

As for what measures the public believes would be the most helpful to increase their willingness to have children, the survey found three effective measures: a monthly subsidy for all children under the age of 18; 30 days of parental leave every year along with flexible work schedules; and better quality public daycare services.

Building a good foundation

While financial stimulus plans can encourage young people to have children, researchers are finding that many young people are having tremendous difficulty getting to the stage in life where having children is something they would consider.

One obstacle is that many young people regard buying an apartment or a house as a prerequisite for marriage. In the survey, Business Today found that 43.4% of people had considered delaying marriage or not getting married because of plans to buy a house.

The results of Business Today’s survey about marriage and child rearing show that government incentives are currently insufficient. The glimmer of hope is that more than half of unmarried people do have the desire to have children. This indicates that the government should also make concerted efforts to remove obstacles to marriage.

Only after promoting marriage can Taiwan begin to rescue the problem of a declining birth rate, which will require more comprehensive support for young families with better childbearing policies that can carry on the hope of more future generations to come.