Wearing a smart business suit, Lin Hsiu-li sips a cappuccino in a Taipei coffee shop. 'I have a good job in the government, I have an apartment and enjoy my life,' she says. 'Raising a child costs at least NT$5 million [HK$1.27 million].
'The men in Taiwan cannot keep up with the women. Why should I marry?'
Lin is one of the more than 7.5 million single people in Taiwan, with singletons accounting for 42 per cent of the over-20 population in 2009. The civil servant's attitude helps explain why the island has the lowest birth rate in the world: 0.9 births per woman, compared with 1.6 in Europe, 1.4 in Japan and the record of 7.7 in the African nation of Niger.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) forecasts that the Taiwanese population will peak at 23.84 million in 2026 and will fall to 20.29 million by 2056.
'The low birth rate is a serious national security threat,' President Ma Ying-jeou said at Taiwan's first children's forum in November.
This decline is all the more astonishing when you consider that, during the 20th century, the island's population rose more than sevenfold, from 3.1 million in 1905 to 22.3 million at the end of 2000. Traditional thinking considers a large family a blessing, with children the insurance for their parents' old age. 'Raise children and they will raise you,' is a popular saying.
During the 1960s, the average number of children per woman in Taiwan was five. From the 70s, it began to fall, reaching the rate of 2.1 per woman in 1984, and has continued to decline since.