📰 Taiwan · page 6

Largest cities and counties

Main article: List of cities in Taiwan

The figures below are the December 2025 estimates for the ten most populous administrative divisions; a different ranking exists when considering the total metropolitan area populations (in such rankings the Taipei-Keelung metro area is by far the largest agglomeration).487 The figures reflect the number of household registrations in each city, which may differ from the number of actual residents.488

Ethnic groups

Main article: Taiwanese people, Han Taiwanese, Han Chinese, Taiwanese indigenous peoples, Plains indigenous peoples

The ROC government reports that 95 percent of the population is ethnically Han Chinese.[449]489 There are also 2.5 percent indigenous Austronesian peoples and 2.5 percent new immigrants primarily from China and Southeast Asia.[450]490

Most Han Taiwanese are descended from the Hoklo people, native to the coastal regions of southern Fujian, and the Hakka people, native to eastern Guangdong.491 Hoklo and Hakka migrants arrived in large numbers during the 17th and 18th century.492 Descendants of Hoklo now compose approximately 70 percent of Taiwan's population.[18]493 Descendants of Hakka make up about 15 percent of the population.494 Another minority group, called waishengren, comprises those who arrived from China during the 1940s or are descended from them.[451]495 Genetic studies indicate that the Han people in Taiwan are closer to southern Chinese compared to northern Chinese and, similar to several other groups of Han Chinese, had mixed with Island Southeast Asians, likely before their migration to Taiwan.[452]496 Nonetheless, they can be genetically distinguished from the indigenous minority despite low-level admixture.497 In addition, there is also evidence of genetic influence from groups like western Indonesians and Mainland Southeast Asians, especially Kinh Vietnamese.[453][454]498

Taiwanese Indigenous peoples number about 584,000, and the government recognizes 16 groups.[455]499 The Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Saaroa, Sakizaya, Sediq, Thao, Truku and Tsou live mostly in the eastern half of the island, while the Yami inhabit Orchid Island.[456][457]500 Taiwan's Indigenous peoples experience significantly lower life expectancy than the Han Chinese population.[458]501

Languages

Main article: Languages of Taiwan

The Republic of China does not have any legally designated official language.502 Mandarin is the primary language used in business and education, and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.503 Traditional Chinese is used as the writing system.[459]504

Around 70% of Taiwan's population belong to the Hoklo ethnic group and are native speakers of Taiwanese Hokkien.[460]505 The Hakka group, comprising some 14–18 percent of the population, speak Hakka.506 Although Mandarin is the language of instruction in schools and dominates television and radio, non-Mandarin Chinese varieties have undergone a revival in public life in Taiwan, particularly since restrictions on their use were lifted in the 1990s.[459]507

Formosan languages are spoken primarily by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan.508 They do not belong to the Chinese or Sino-Tibetan language family, but to the Austronesian language family, and are written in the Latin alphabet.[461]509 Their use among aboriginal minority groups has been in decline as usage of Mandarin has risen.[459]510 Of the 14 extant languages, five are considered moribund.[462]511

Since the May Fourth Movement, written vernacular Chinese had replaced Classical Chinese and emerged as the mainstream written Chinese in the Republic of China.512 Classical Chinese continued to be widely used in government documents until reforms in the 1970s to shift the written style to a more integrated vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese style (文白合一行文).[463][464]513 On 1 January 2005, the Executive Yuan also changed its long-standing convention on the direction of writing in official documents from vertical to horizontal.514 Standalone Classical Chinese is occasionally used in formal or ceremonial occasions, such as religious or cultural rites.515 The "National Anthem of the Republic of China" (中華民國國歌), for example, is in Classical Chinese.516 Most official government, legal, and judiciary documents, as well as courts rulings use a combined vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese style.[465]517 As many legal documents are still written in Classical Chinese, which is not easily understood by the general public, a group of Taiwanese have launched the Legal Vernacular Movement, hoping to bring more vernacular Chinese into the legal writings of the Republic of China.[466]518

Taiwan is officially multilingual.519 A national language in Taiwan is legally defined as "a natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan and the Taiwan Sign Language".[16]520

Religion

Main article: Religion in Taiwan

The Constitution of the Republic of China protects people's freedom of religion and the practices of belief.[467][468]521 The government respects freedom of religion, and Taiwan scores highly on the International IDEA's Global State of Democracy Indices for religious freedom.[469]522

In 2005, the census reported that the five largest religious groups were Buddhism, Taoism, Yiguandao, Protestantism, and Roman Catholicism.[470]523 According to Pew Research, the religious composition of Taiwan in 2023[471] was 28 percent Buddhist, 24% Taoist, 7% Christian, 5% combination of religions, 4% local/indigenous, 27% no religion, and 4% others.524 Taiwanese aborigines comprise a notable subgroup among professing Christians.[472]525 There has been a small Muslim community of Hui people since the 17th century.[473]526

Confucianism serves as the foundation of both Chinese and Taiwanese culture.527 The majority of Taiwanese people usually combine the secular moral teachings of Confucianism with whatever religions they are affiliated with.528

as of 2019, there were 15,175 religious buildings in Taiwan, approximately one place of worship per 1,572 residents.529 12,279 temples were dedicated to Taoism and Buddhism.530 There were 9,684 Taoist temples, 2,317 Buddhist temples,[474] and 2,845 Christian churches.[474]531 On average, there is one temple, church, or religious building for every square kilometer.532 The density of religions and religious buildings in Taiwan is among the highest in the world.[475][476]533

A significant percentage of the population is non-religious.534 Taiwan's lack of state-sanctioned discrimination, and generally high regard for freedom of religion or belief earned it a joint #1 ranking in the 2018 Freedom of Thought Report.[477][478]535 On the other hand, the Indonesian migrant worker community in Taiwan (estimated to total 258,084 people) has experienced religious restrictions by local employers or the government.[479][480]536

Education

Main article: Education in Taiwan, Academia Sinica, History of education in Taiwan

See also: Scholarships in Taiwan, Economy of Taiwan § Science

Taiwan is well known for adhering to the Confucian paradigm of valuing education as a means to improve one's socioeconomic position in society.[481][482]537 Heavy investment and a cultural valuing of education has made the resource-poor nation to be consistently ranked to the top of global education rankings.538 Taiwan is one of the top-performing countries in reading literacy, mathematics and sciences.539 In 2015, Taiwanese students achieved one of the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with the average student scoring 519, compared with the OECD average of 493, placing it seventh in the world.[483][484][485]540

The Taiwanese education system has been praised for its comparatively high test results and its major role in promoting Taiwan's economic development while creating one of the world's most highly educated workforces.[486][487]541 Taiwan has also been praised for its high university entrance rate where the university acceptance rate has increased from around 20 percent before the 1980s to 49 percent in 1996 and over 95 percent since 2008, among the highest in Asia.[488][489][490]542 The nation's high university entrance rate has created a highly skilled workforce making Taiwan one of the most highly educated countries in the world with 68.5 percent of Taiwanese high school students going on to attend university.[491]543 Taiwan has a high percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree where 45 percent of Taiwanese aged 25–64 hold a bachelor's degree or higher compared with the average of 33 percent among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).[490][492]544

On the other hand, the education system has been criticized for placing excessive pressure on students while eschewing creativity and producing an excess supply of overeducated university graduates.545 Many graduates consequently face unemployment or underemployment due to a lack of graduate-level jobs.[493][482]546 Taiwan's universities have also been under criticism for not being able to fully meet the requirements and demands of Taiwan's 21st-century fast-moving labor market, citing a skills mismatch among a large number of self-assessed, overeducated graduates who do not fit the demands of the modern Taiwanese labor market.[494]547 The Taiwanese government has been criticized for failing to adequately address this discrepancy in labor supply and demand.[488][495]548

As the Taiwanese economy is largely science and technology based, the labor market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering to gain a competitive edge when searching for employment.549 Although current Taiwanese law mandates only nine years of schooling, 95 percent of junior high graduates go on to attend a senior vocational high school, university, junior college, trade school, or other higher education institution.[491][496]550 Many Taiwanese students attend cram schools, or buxiban, to improve skills and knowledge on problem solving against exams.[497][498]551

Since Made in China 2025 was announced in 2015, aggressive campaigns to recruit Taiwanese chip industry talent to support its mandates resulted in the loss of more than 3,000 chip engineers to mainland China,[499] and raised concerns of a "brain drain" in Taiwan.[500][501]552

as of 2020, the literacy rate in Taiwan was 99.03 percent.[502]553

Health

Main article: Healthcare in Taiwan

The current healthcare system, known as National Health Insurance (NHI), was instituted in 1995.554 NHI is a single-payer compulsory social insurance plan that centralizes the disbursement of healthcare funds.555 The system promises equal access to healthcare for all citizens, and the population coverage had reached 99 percent by the end of 2004.[503]556 NHI is mainly financed through premiums, which are based on the payroll tax, and is supplemented with out-of-pocket co-payments and direct government funding.[504][505][506]557 Low-income families, veterans, centenarians, children under three, and catastrophic diseases are exempt from co-payments.558 Co-pays are reduced for disabled and low-income households maintain 100 percent premium coverage.559

Early in the program, the payment system was predominantly fee-for-service.560 Most health providers operate in the private sector and form a competitive market on the health delivery side.561 However, many healthcare providers took advantage of the system by offering unnecessary services.562 In the face of increasing loss and the need for cost containment, NHI changed the payment system from fee-for-service to a global budget, a kind of prospective payment system, in 2002.563

The implementation of universal healthcare created fewer health disparities for lower-income citizens in Taiwan.564 According to a recently published survey, out of 3,360 patients surveyed at a randomly chosen hospital, 75.1 percent of the patients said they are "very satisfied" with the hospital service; 20.5 percent said they are "okay" with the service.565 Only 4.4 percent of the patients said they are either "not satisfied" or "very not satisfied" with the service or care provided.[507]566

The Taiwanese disease control authority is the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC).567 During the SARS outbreak in March 2003 there were 347 confirmed cases.568 During the outbreak the CDC and local governments set up monitoring stations throughout public transportation, recreational sites and other public areas.569 With full containment in July 2003, there has not been a case of SARS since.[508]570 Owing to the lessons from SARS, a National Health Command Center was established in 2004, which includes the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).571 The CECC has played a central role in Taiwan's approach to epidemics, including COVID-19.572

In 2019, the infant mortality rate was 4.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, with 20 physicians and 71 hospital beds per 10,000 people.[509][510]573 Life expectancy at birth in 2020 is 77.5 years and 83.9 years for males and females, respectively.[511]574