Zhubei City in Hsinchu County recorded Taiwan’s highest growth in absolute population over the past five years, while the highest rate of growth occurred in Lienchiang County’s Beigan Township, according to statistics released this week by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).
Zhubei, located near the bustling Hsinchu Science Park, saw its population expand by 19,085 people from 2018 through the third quarter of 2022, followed by New Taipei’s Linkou and Tamsui districts in second and third place, the data showed.
The MOI statistics covered the top 20 localities — including county-administered cities, districts and townships – with the largest population growth:
Hsinchu County, Zhubei City: +19,085 New Taipei City, Linkou District: +17,160 New Taipei City, Tamsui District: +15,901 Taichung City, Beitun District: +14,565 Taoyuan City, Taoyuan District: +12,234 Taoyuan City, Zhongli District: +10,449 Taoyuan City, Guishan District: +8,651 Taoyuan City, Bade District: +7,882 New Taipei City, Xizhi District: +7,347 Kaohsiung City, Renwu District: +7,106
Of the 11th-20th fastest growing localities, all but one — Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township, to the north of Zhubei — were located in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, where nearly 70 percent of the population already lives.
Reached by CNA, city government officials in New Taipei and Taoyuan cited lower housing prices, good public transportation, and access to jobs and recreation as factors driving the local population growth, particularly among younger people.
Meanwhile, Zhubei Mayor Cheng Chao-fang (???) pointed out that Hsinchu city and county now form a common metropolitan area, whose several science and technology parks have attracted major companies offering large numbers of well-paid jobs.
Rate of population growth
The MOI also published statistics on the rate of population growth, in which category Lienchiang County’s Beigan Township — with a population of around 3,000 — grabbed the top spot.
According to the data, Beigan Township recorded an average population increase of 15.32‰ (parts per thousand, or 1.532 percent) per quarter over the five-year period.
Rounding out the top five, meanwhile, were Linkou, with an average quarterly growth rate of 8.46‰, Taoyuan’s Fuxing District with 6.28‰, Hualien’s Fengbin Township with 6.02‰, and Zhubei with 5.76‰.
Conversely, the locations with the highest rate of population decline were all in Taipei. The capital city’s Xinyi, Daan, Songshan, Zhongshan and Wanhua districts, all tallied population decreases of above 5‰ (or 0.5%) per quarter during the five-year period, the MOI data showed.
Taipei’s population loss was a key topic of debate in last year’s Taipei mayoral election, with candidates pointing to high housing prices and low wages as the reasons driving young families away from the capital.
Former Deputy Taipei Mayor Huang Shan-shan (???) had argued, however, that Taipei’s population decline should be understood in the context of nationwide negative population growth since 2020.
All of Taiwan’s six special municipalities, except for Taoyuan, have seen population decline and many Taipei residents have chosen to move to nearby New Taipei and Taoyuan because of the convenient transportation network connecting Taipei and these cities, Huang said at the time.
Li Wei (??), deputy director of the Hualien Civil Affairs Department, downplayed Fengbin Township’s inclusion on the population growth rate list, noting that the rural township has only 4,300 residents.
“The denominator is low, so if a few people move in, the growth rate is very large,” Li said, adding that for this reason, the ranking is “not that big a deal.”
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel