"People" Top 5 Page for this destination Taiwan Favorite Tip by Kurtdhis

Favorite thing: Taiwan's population surpassed 22.45 million in June 2002. Taipei City is the largest and most densely populated metropolitan area, followed by Kaohsiung City in the south. About 60 percent of Taiwan's population is concentrated in four metropolitan areas--Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Tainan.
Over the past few decades, the average age of Taiwan's population has increased by 1.8 percent. In June 2002, the number of people over the age of 65 exceeded 8.9 percent of the total population, and the rise is expected to continue.

With the exception of over 413,519 indigenous peoples in 2001, Taiwan's population is composed almost entirely of Han Chinese. Early Han Chinese immigrants, or "Taiwanese," are of two groups: the Hakka, mostly from Guangdong Province; and the Fujianese, from China's southeastern coastal province of Fujian. These two groups comprise about 85 percent of the Han population, with the Fujianese outnumbering the Hakka by about three to one. The last group of immigrants came to Taiwan from various parts of China with the ROC government in 1949. They are generally referred to as "mainlanders," and account for less than 15 percent of the Han population. Intermarriage between all four groups--indigenous peoples, Hakkas, Fujianese, and mainlanders--is quite common, so the distinguishing characteristics of these groups have become fainter over time.

Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples
Human habitation in Taiwan dates back 12,000 to 15,000 years, and evidence suggests that the ancestors of today's aboriginal peoples came from southern China and Austronesia. There are currently eleven major aboriginal tribes in Taiwan: the Atayal,Saisiyat,Bunun,Tsou,Paiwan,Rukai, Puyuma,Amis,Kavalan,and Yami. Collectively, they comprise less than 2 percent of the population.