Taiwan Today

The government’s infrastructure initiative complements existing programs to address the nation’s declining birthrate.

Taiwan’s aging index exceeded the 100-point mark for the first time in February, hitting a new high of 100.18. According to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), this means the country is facing a serious aging population problem. Calculated as the number of persons 65 years old or over per 100 under age 15, the benchmark is widely used to gauge the degree of aging in a society.

MOI statistics reveal that Taiwan officially became an aging society in 1993, with senior citizens accounting for more than 7 percent of the population. The results from the February index mean the ratio has jumped to around 13.3 percent. Based on Cabinet-level National Development Council (NDC) projections, Taiwan will become an aged society next year with seniors comprising over 14 percent of the population.

A major factor in the nation’s aging is its extraordinarily low birthrate, which in 1984 dropped below 2.1 children per woman—the level required to sustain population growth—and stood at 1.175 in 2016. The NDC estimated that due to the decline in fertility, the population of preschool children aged 0-5 years will decline by 337,000 within 20 years.

“Population aging and fewer births are likely to have substantial impacts on our country’s future socioeconomic development and industry structure,” said Chien Hui-jiuan (簡慧娟), director of the Social and Family Affairs Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW). “These demographic changes could lead to increased government spending on health care, welfare and pensions, as well as a shrinking labor force and lower tax revenues.” This consequently hinders economic growth, private investment and national competitiveness, she added.

Seeking a Balance

To tackle these challenges, the government has implemented a raft of policies and measures including after-school care services, subsidies, tax breaks and tuition exemption, as well as plans under the four-year Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (FIDP) to create friendly child care spaces. These efforts are designed to alleviate the economic burden on parents, remove barriers to women’s employment and reverse the declining birthrate.

Plans under the FIDP, a comprehensive initiative aimed at addressing Taiwan’s key infrastructure needs over the next 30 years, seek to accelerate the establishment of community-based public nurseries for children aged 0-2 as well as construction of new kindergartens for those 3-6. These two initiatives are being implemented by the MOHW and Ministry of Education (MOE), respectively.

Accordingly, local governments will receive subsidies to establish community nurseries that provide high-quality services at reasonable prices in a safe environment; convert vacant properties into nursery resource centers where consultations and educational courses are offered; and set up regional family welfare service centers that deliver assistance, especially to disadvantaged groups. Child-rearing information packets will be given to families with newborns to ease the stress of child care and bridge the information gap between rural and urban areas.

“We want to combine government and community resources to share the burden of parenting and support families raising children,” Chien said. “The aim is to increase accessibility, affordability and availability of quality nurseries for infants and toddlers through the formation of a localized service network.” It is hoped that this measure can encourage people to have children while allowing them to achieve a work-life balance, the director added.

Gloria Wu (武曉霞), leader of the Division of Junior High, Elementary School and Preschool Education under the MOE’s K-12 Education Administration, pointed out that the fall in fertility will affect the education system and result in supply-demand imbalance. The situation will also lead to labor shortages and an increase in the ratio of elderly citizens dependent on public welfare.

Based on government statistics, more than 70 percent of employed women in Taiwan who become pregnant choose to leave their jobs in order to raise their children. “The lack of family support policies has put many women in a dilemma of choosing between work and family,” Wu noted. More and more women are choosing not to have children, and of those who do, the majority quit their jobs, further reducing the female labor force, she added.

Room for Growth

Currently, around 70 percent of local kindergartens are run by private entities and are substantially more expensive than public facilities. Therefore, one of the major objectives of the government’s education policy, Wu explained, is to reduce the cost of raising children by increasing the supply of public education and care services.

According to Wu, the MOE’s portion of the child care facilities plan includes providing subsidies that will be made available to local governments for the construction of new kindergartens based on a special budget of NT$1.94 billion (US$64.7 million). The hope is that this will lead to high-quality, reasonably priced services and boost the overall supply of public educational facilities. Wu said her agency will hold meetings with local governments to study the feasibility of converting empty school buildings into preschools or building new ones on unused sites. This scheme is expected to allow for the establishment of 200 public kindergarten classes at 50 schools by 2020, with space for approximately 5,800 children.

Taiwan faces the daunting challenge of an aging population that stems from its low birthrate, and the subsequent economic and social implications are becoming increasingly apparent. “Through a special budget and joint action across central and local governments to provide more child care support, we hope to create friendly child care environments and encourage people to have more children,” Wu said. “Accomplishing these tasks is vital to the nation’s sustainable development and our children’s future.”

Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw