As many as 40 percent of those aged between 20 and 49 remain single in Taiwan, the poll revealed.
Among respondents aged between 20 and 29, 90 percent of the males and 71 percent of the females are single. As a result, these unmarried young men and women miss out on the most opportune time in their lives for bearing children.
The survey was carried out after the Ministry of the Interior solicited entries for a new slogan that would “make people want to have children whenever the slogan was recited.” In its eagerness for a memorable phrase, the MOI even offered to pay NT$1 million (US$31,000) to whoever submitted the winning phrase.
But the “China Times” survey found that most respondents are in fact not opposed to having children. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed said having two children is the ideal, 13 percent put the figure at three, 5 percent said one is enough, and 1 percent wanted four or more. Only 3 percent of those surveyed said they did not want children.
Ninety-four percent of married respondents already have children, while 2 percent are currently childless but hope to have children in the future. Only 4 percent of married couples wish to remain childless.
For families with children, 25 percent have one child, 54 percent have two and 19 percent have three. Three percent of them have four or more.
The survey also showed that 51 percent of parents with one child hope to add a new family member soon.
Forty-three percent of the childless families responded that they will give birth to children when the timing is ripe. Twenty-three percent of them said they would like to have one or more children but have had trouble conceiving. Twenty-seven percent said they could not afford having children.
In general, no matter married or not, 62 percent of childless respondents expressed a wish to have children in the future, while 38 percent of them did not.
Among childless respondents who do not want to have children, 36 percent said they cannot afford to have children due to insufficient personal finances. Sixteen percent responded that they are afraid children will affect their present quality of life, 11 percent believe they are too young to have children and 8 percent think they will not make good parents.
The survey also discovered that as many as 69 percent of the respondents are worried Taiwan will become an elderly nation because of its low birth rate, while 26 percent are unconcerned.
The survey, a random sampling of 812 adults from across Taiwan, was conducted via telephone on March 16, 2010. Preliminary results were weighted according to the age, sex and location of the residents before being analyzed. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, based on a 95-percent confidence level. (TYH-HZW)