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★ Brookings, 2025-2-12: Taiwan's economy is heavily concentrated around electronics and information and communication technology exports. Taiwan's semiconductor industry, for instance, creates jobs for only 2.8% of the workforce. This concentration of high-paying jobs in one sector is creating widening wealth disparities within Taiwan's society; wages in the service sector are largely stagnant. brookings.edu/articles/taiwan-president-lais-three-big-challenges-in-2025/

★ According to the 2024 World Happiness Report (WHR) published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.  The survey panel ranked Taiwan 31st on the list, with Japan ranking 51th, S. Korea 52nd. (Mar. 2024)

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★ Brookings, 2024-9-25: Taiwan authorities have attempted without success to incentivize population growth through subsidies. Looking ahead, greater policy efforts will likely be needed to address the root causes of declining fertility, including by offering greater access to child and elder care, affordable housing, and reductions in cost-of-living stresses on younger generations.

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★ The Conversation (2023-12-21): Taiwan's falling birth rate has become a national security issue / For three years now, deaths have exceeded births in Taiwan. Only immigration is preventing a real decline in population.
 (1) Young women in Taiwan   tend to explain   their preference for pets over babies in terms of financial pressures, particularly the cost of housing.  marriage avoidance has become a marked phenomenon. (2) the problem is grounded in the Confucian cultural bedrock of the region. Family and society are rigidly patriarchal. Workplace organisation and wider societal structures are unfavourable to women. (3) Taiwanese live with an undercurrent of concern about the future of their country. If so,... a lack of security in geopolitical terms is informing decisions about whether or not to marry and have childrentheconversation.com/why-taiwans-falling-birth-rate-has-become-a-national-security-issue-219968

★   United Daily (聯合報), 2023-7-25:  The US predicts Taiwan to have world's (227 countries) lowest birth rate in 2023.  ...udn.com/news/story/7338/7322470?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7338_pulldownmenu_v2

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★   United Daily (聯合報),  2024-7-24: Currently, the number of suicides and self-mutilations among Taiwanese teenagers has increased ten times since 1996. The number of Taiwanese who do not get married, don't want children... ranks world No.1 .  Young people even do not choose to fall in love anymore.  Two million people suffer from depression, and a quarter of the population have difficulty in sleeping at night.

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★   United Daily (聯合報),  2023-10-31:  Half of young people are poor so that they don't need to file taxes.  The gap between the rich and the poor hit 10 years high.  (半數年輕人窮到免繳稅，去年貧富差距創十年新高) udn.com/news/story/7338/7540439?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2       China Times (中國時報) , 2023-12-2: The declining birthrate has plunged into a vicious cycle

★   FTV News (民視新聞), 2023-12-4: Taiwan's fertiity rate (birth rate 1.09) will rank world last in 2023。Housing price and  (commodity) prices rising a lot is the main cause.  tw.news.yahoo.com/2023台灣生育率全球最後1名-民眾-房價高不敢生-043103360.html★

★   United Daily (聯合報), 2023-12-17: According to government's statistics, 80% of female aged 25~29 are bachelorette, 45％ aged 30~34 are unmarried.  It is usually because the male (or they) can't afford buying a house.  Taiwan's divorce rate rose steadily, 34.75% couples divorced 5 years after being married.  The fertility of both male and female drop sharply.  According to study by Taipei medical university (台北醫學院)，Taiwanese sperm reduce 1% for every 10 years，The fertility of Taiwanese female after age 33 fall sharply, but the average marriage-age of the female is 30.2.   Taiwan ranks world No.1 or 2 in terms of infertility - 1/7.  udn.com/news/story/7340/7646034?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2 楊志良

★  China Times (中國時報) , 2023-12-2:  According to government , Taiwanese need NT$ 24,574 monthly in average to keep body and soul together；by contrast,  the average monthly labor pension is only bit more than NT$ 18,000。This is a serious issue of Taiwan's labor system.

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★   United Daily (聯合報), 2023-7-10:  Taiwan's suicide rate ranks No.3 compared with OECD countries in 2022  (Taiwan is not a member of OECD) ; Taiwan's Annual working hours (1910 hrs.) ranks world No.4   udn.com/news/story/121823/7289250?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub121823_pulldownmenu_v2

★  Gallup's accompanying article, “Global Study Reveals Most Workers Enjoy What They Do”, Taiwan ranks No. 114 out of 122countries.  moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/11/10/122-countries-ranked-on-workplace-happiness/  2022-11-10

★ China Times ,  2023-12-3: The hidden debt is as high as NT$ 11 trillion, and is increasing at an average of more than NT$ 400 billions per year.  Because of Tsai Ing-wen government's inactive, it is estimated that the Labor Insurance Fund will go bankrupt in 2028, and the premiums paid by workers may never be recovered  chinatimes.com/opinion/20231202003281-262101?chdtv
　

★  United Daily (聯合報),  2023-12-3:  The number of people diagnosed with depression in Taiwan has increased to 1.25 million, and one-fifth of the population cannot sleep at night unless taking sleeping pills. The number of Taiwanese suicide and self-harm aged 15 ~ 24 has increased from 1,000 in 2015 to 10,000 in recent years.  When people are depressed, domestic violence has reached to 120,000 cases, child abuse has reached more than 40 cases every day, elder abuse has exceeded 10,000 cases ... udn.com/news/story/7340/7614549?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2  楊志良 former the Minister of the Department of Health 

★ Yahoo, CTI, 2023-2-11:   law maker："joblessness and inflation are two major miseries".  tw.news.yahoo.com/台灣經濟真相-王鴻薇揭近2年-痛苦指數-蔡政府對人民視而不見-081733883.html#:~:text=王鴻薇指出：「失業和通貨,突破7%25大關。」

★  《 China Daily 》 , 2023-5-26: Taiwan people unhappy with DPP, polls show /  Taiwan's residents are disillusioned with Tsai Ing-wen's performance and the DPP administration's reluctance to address important issues such as the income gap, affordable housing and unemployment. 73.9 percent of respondents are unhappy with the administration's approach toward narrowing the income gap.......The high cost of living, coupled with low wages and long working hours, has caused significant hardships。Another poll conducted by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, more than 50 percent of respondents do not want the DPP to remain in power. The DPP has not just wasted Taiwan people's hard-earned money but has also tried to push the region to the brink of war.  chinadaily.com.cn/a/202305/26/WS646fc82ea310b6054fad5234.html

★  《 National Interest》 ,  2022-7-9:   Taiwan faces many internal problems. First, low wages and high housing costs are affecting the marriage rate and leading to decreases in fertility.    nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-china-cant-afford-attack-taiwan-203504

★  《 VOAnews》 ,  2022-4-1: survey: More than 20% of Taiwanese under the age of 40 say they lack savings and 65% report they are in debt, only one-third of respondents said their income exceeds their expenses,... Some 41.8% of respondents said their debt was high enough that they felt economic pressure. Taiwan's rising housing costs have also made it difficult for young people...
Today, even small housing units in Taipei can command prices exceeding $1 million,...housing prices across six cities including Taipei rose more than 30% between 2019 and 2021.  Much of the inflated prices in housing is fueled by the long running problem of property speculation in Taiwan and very little social housing.    voanews.com/a/survey-shows-young-taiwanese-lack-savings-are-highly-indebted-/6510937.html

★ 《 United Daily 經濟日報》, 2023-5-20: The price index of houses in Q4, 2022 reaches 127.5, which increases 28% since Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016。The prices of pre-sale houses increase even much more ( 87% )。  The young people cannot afford buying a house, therefore more and more choose not to get married and not to have baby.  udn.com/news/story/7338/7177628?    《 United Daily 》, 2023-5-20: The public worry Taiwan's economic future, the young people are at a loss about the price of houses and military draft. udn.com/news/story/7338/7177665?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2 

★  《 SCMP》, 2022-11-1: Taiwan’s fertility rate set to become world’s lowest by 2035. Taiwan's total fertility rate could drop to a historic low of 0.89 births per woman of a childbearing age this year, down from 0.98 in 2021.  Over the pre-pandemic decade, Taiwanese... felt daunted by the cost of buying their first homes and spent time caring for their elders.  msn.com/en-xl/money/other/taiwan-s-fertility-rate-set-to-become-world-s-lowest-by-2035-as-ticking-demographic-time-bomb-grows-louder/ar-AA13BNZd

★  <China Times> ,   2023-5-20:  Inequality and economic recession of the common people and subaltern.   Differ from workers in high-tech industries, most salary earners struggle in low-salary and high price of house.   chinatimes.com/opinion/20230517005575-262101?chdtv

★  <China Times> , editorial , 2023-5-21: When Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, the house price-to-income ratio is  9.32, Mortgage Burden is 38.34%，the house price-to-income ratio in Q4 2022 is 9.61，Mortgage Burden is 40.25, showing an obvious upward trend.  As of April this year, the supply of new housing projects in the metropolitan area has decreased by about 10% compared with the same period last year, but prices have even continued to rise 。Given the low wages of young people in Taiwan, what kind of price and area "suits young people's ability" as Minister of Interior said? ？ Single renters in Taipei spend an average of 35% of their monthly salary on renting a suite. How can they save some money to buy a house? The current unemployment rate among young people aged 25 to 29 is as high as 6.13%. Young people can't even find a job, let alone buying a house?   chinatimes.com/opinion/20230520003246-262101?chdtv

★  《United Daily 聯合報 》 ,   2023-2-11: Deaths from poverty continually appeared in Taiwan, some economically disadvantaged hard to live a hand-to-mouth existence failed to meet government's social welfare standards, our social security net was worse than broken.  udn.com/news/story/7338/6964351?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

★  《United Daily 聯合報 》 ,   2023-5-8: The sense of powerlessness of the people of Taiwan - all kinds of misfortunes in society, such as judiciary, joblessness,  surveillance/monitors everywhere,  countless unjust cases and disputes ... look at those sufferings and hardships people should not experienced  udn.com/news/story/121823/7149361?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub121823_pulldownmenu_v2

★  《 China Times 》editorial , 2022-4-27: 「misery index」1Q is up to 6.4%  chinatimes.com/opinion/20220426004891-262101?chdtv

★  <United Daily > editorial, 2022-4-15 (udn.com/news/story/7338/6240482?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7338_pulldownmenu_v2):

★  <United Daily > editorial, 2022-3-27: In a seminar in National Cheng Kung University, 41% students chose to embrace  ‘Lying Flat’( lie around like a couch potato)...Soaring housing prices have become the biggest pain for young people...the real wage is pretty low...

 udn.com/news/story/7338/6194409?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

★◎<United Daily >, 2022-3-8: According to Academia Sinica, 56% husbands feel happy, 45% wives feel happy; Gov data: nearly half of young people, , particularly female, born between 1981 and 1990 are still single.    udn.com/news/story/7339/6147653?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2

★  CIA   The World Fact Book (cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/total-fertility-rate/country-comparison), Japan Times, 2021-4-21: CIA estimates Taiwan's "Fertility Rate" in 2021 to be world's lowest.  Taiwan ranks No. 227, probably caused by many house-wives being busy in work as well as in household duties, according to Liberty Times 2021-4-20.  Japan ranks 218,  China 185, Singapore 225.