Taiwan will enter a super-aged society in 2025, with its total population projected to fall below 23 million by 2030 and the share of people aged 65 and above expected to exceed 30% by 2039, according to an official assessment report released on the 17th.
The planning agency said Taiwan’s population returned to a negative growth trend in 2024, a development that is unlikely to be reversed, with long-term low birth rates and population ageing set to become more pronounced.
The report forecasts that by 2028, the proportion of the working-age population aged 15 to 64 will fall below two-thirds of the total population, signalling the end of the demographic dividend.
Under international standards, a society is considered ageing when those aged 65 and above account for more than 7% of the population, deeply ageing at 14%, and super-aged at 20%. Taiwan entered a deeply ageing society in 2018.
Official statistics show that as of the end of August this year, seven of Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties had an elderly population share exceeding 20%, placing them in the super-aged category.
The ageing trend has led to labour shortages, shrinking student numbers and rising healthcare spending. The agency said population decline and ageing would have far-reaching economic and social impacts, calling for measures such as improved childcare subsidies, greater labour participation among older people and women, talent attraction, better healthcare services and industrial upgrading.
