| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
Taiwan
As part of this global expansion of industrializing countries, Taiwan has experienced a dramatic increase in life expectancy and a rapid growth in the number and proportion of the older population, both of which have been achieved within a time frame far shorter than occurred in the West. In 1951 as the period of rapid economic change was beginning, the life expectancy at birth in Taiwan was 53.4 years for males and 56.3 years for females. By 1998, it had increased to 72 years for males and 77.9 years for females, very similar to the figures for the U.S. Similarly, the percentage of the population 65 years of age and older in Taiwan grew from 2.5% in 1950 to 6.21% in 1990, just prior to the data collection period for this study, and then again to 8.52% in 2000 (Bartlett & Wu, 2000). If present trends continue, the percentage of those 60 years of age and older is expected to climb to 24.8 % by the year 2025 (Kinsella, 2000).
Many of these population changes in Taiwan have even outstripped Western countries considered more advanced in their industrial development. Encouraged by a government policy of family planning initiated in 1964, the average number of births per women declined from 5.9 in 1949 to 1.77 in 1997, well below the replacement level of 2.1 (Bartlett & Wu, 2000). Hermalin and Yang (2004) report that, since 1985, the total fertility rate has been below 2, reflecting a remarkably rapid decline over a 3-decade period. Regarding the infant mortality rate in Taiwan, it stood at 6 per 1,000 births by 1994, a rate that was lower than in the U.S. at that time. Although the premarital sexual experience of Taiwanese women has increased, as it has elsewhere, unlike in most Western countries, this has not resulted in a substantial increase in nonmarital child bearing.
The social changes in Taiwan occurring during this same period were no less dramatic.