Households with elderly members increased by 1.15 million in a decadeBy Hsu I-ping and Fion Khan / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe number of households with elderly members has increased by 1.15 million over the past decade, creating a growing scene of aging families across the nation, Ministry of the Interior data showed. The figure represented an increase of about 1.15 million households with elderly residents, compared with about 2.27 million such households, or 26.61 percent, in September 2016 — an increase of more than 8 percentage points over the past decade. Taiwan’s low birthrate has driven household structures to shift from multigenerational families to single-generation households, housing researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said. In 2000, children accounted for 21 percent of the population, while elderly people made up 9 percent, he said. Over the years, the number of children has dropped from 4.7 million to 2.74 million — a decline of 42 percent, while the elderly population has surged from 1.92 million to 4.49 million — an increase of 134 percent, Huang said.

Source: Taipei Times December 28, 2025 16:07 UTC