Demographics of Taiwan
This article is about the demographic features of the population in Taiwan, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The population in Taiwan is approximately 23.4 million, spread across a total land area of about 36,000 km2; it is the seventeenth most densely populated country in the world with a population density of about 650 inhabitants per square kilometer.
The original population of the island of Taiwan and its associated islands, i.e. not including Kinmen and the Matsu Islands, consisted of Taiwanese aborigines, speaking Austronesian languages and sharing DNA contribution with island peoples of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Immigration of Han Chinese to the Penghu islands started as early as the 13th century, while settlement of the main island occurred from the 16th century, stimulated by the import of workers from Fujian by the Dutch in the 17th century. According to governmental statistics, over 95% of the Republic of China's population is now made up of Han Chinese, while 2.3% are Taiwanese aborigines. Half the population are followers of one or a mixture of 25 recognized religions. Around 93% of the religious population are followers of a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, while a minority 4.5% are followers of Christianity.
During the 20th century the population of Taiwan rose more than sevenfold, from about 3 million in 1905 to more than 22 million by 2001. This high growth was caused by a combination of factors, very high fertility rates up to the 1960s, and low mortality rates, and a surge in population as the Chinese Civil War ended, and the Kuomintang (KMT) forces retreated, bringing an influx of 1.2 to 2 million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 1948–1949. Consequently, the natural growth rate was very rapid, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, with an effective annual growth rate as high as 3.68% during 1951–1956. Including the Kuomintang forces, which accounted in 1950 for about 25% of all persons on Taiwan, immigration of mainland Chinese (now approximately 13% of the present population) at the end of the 1940s was a major factor in the high population growth of Taiwan.
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