TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan recorded just 6,523 births in February, the lowest single-month total in history, as the Ministry of the Interior (內政部) reported a 37 percent decline from February 2025. Medical experts warned on March 11 that the demographic collapse will cascade through healthcare, education, labor markets, and national security for decades. The decline represents 3,884 fewer newborns compared to the same month last year.
The stark imbalance translates to one birth every 6.2 minutes versus one death every 2.7 minutes. Taiwan's total population has now declined for 26 consecutive months, standing at 23.28 million as of the end of February. The nation loses an average of 286 people per day, with those aged 65 and older comprising 20.22 percent of the population — officially crossing into what demographers classify as a "super-aged society."
The Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology (婦產科醫學會) projects total births for 2026 will fall below 90,000, down from approximately 107,000 last year. Secretary-General Huang Chien-pei (黃建霈) described the outlook as "very pessimistic," noting that major hospitals delivered only single-digit "National Day babies" and "New Year's babies" — traditional markers of birth trends in Taiwan, where families often time births to coincide with auspicious dates.
The healthcare sector is already experiencing severe consequences. Twenty-three obstetric clinics closed last year alone, and numerous postpartum care centers have shuttered, according to Huang. Taiwan has approximately 200 obstetric medical facilities remaining. Education systems face mounting pressure as enrollment declines force rural elementary schools to merge or close — a pattern analysts project will reach universities within 15 years as today's missing babies become tomorrow's missing students.
Government incentives have failed to reverse the trend despite offering NT$100,000 (around US$3,129) per birth, flexible parental leave, expanded infertility treatment subsidies, and housing preferences for families with multiple children. Huang attributed the failure to young people's perception that one-time payments cannot offset the estimated NT$8 million to NT$10 million (around US$250,313 to US$312,891) cost of raising a child to age 18.
A pilot program for flexible parental leave policy attracted only 166 participants across 89 companies over two years, with 76 percent of participating firms seeing zero employee applications. The data was presented in the Legislative Yuan (立法院), Taiwan's parliament, on Tuesday (March 10) by opposition Kuomintang (國民黨), Taiwan's main opposition party, Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽).
Chen called on the Ministry of Labor (勞動部) to study flexible work-hour policies from the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan, demanding a legislative proposal within three months. She cited a Child Welfare League Foundation (兒童福利聯盟) survey finding that 60 percent of Taiwanese express annoyance at children's noise — evidence of what she called an "anti-child culture" where some businesses explicitly refuse to serve families.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) acknowledged the concerns but did not specify new measures. Taiwan's total fertility rate (TFR) of approximately 0.87 ranks second-lowest globally, trailing only South Korea at 0.72. Newborn numbers have plummeted from 213,598 in 2015 to approximately 107,000 in 2025 — a decline of nearly 50 percent in a decade. "Not marrying, not having children, living happily" has become a generational motto among young Taiwanese, Huang told the United Daily News.
Huang said the motto reflects young Taiwanese indifference to incentives that cannot match the true cost of parenthood. Regional disparities persist, with Penghu County (澎湖縣) recording the highest crude birth rate at 5.62 per thousand and Keelung City (基隆市) the lowest at 2.54 — yet even the highest rates fall far below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population.
Experts warn that every month below replacement level compounds consequences that will eventually surface as closed schools, empty factories, and pension systems with insufficient funding. Each of February's 6,523 births represents a future worker, taxpayer, and potential parent — but Taiwan's crisis is now measured not by the births that occur, but by the ones that never will. ◼ (At time of reporting, US$1 equals approximately NT$31.96 and 1 euro equals around NT$36.84)