Taiwan's Unsustainable Retiree Burden on its Shrinking Workforce


 
With the third lowest fertility rate globally (0.9%) Taiwan’s working-age population is shrinking. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Number of Working-Age People to each Dependent (65+) in Taiwan
The working-age population represents those aged 15 to 64. Period: 1950-2050.
Taiwan



Note: Y axis ratios are expressed as “X : 1,” meaning X working people to every 1 elderly dependent.

In 1950, each retiree in Taiwan was supported by nearly 26 people of working age. By 2050, this is projected to have fallen to 1.4. That is the joint-third lowest projected ratio globally. A report has predicted Government spending on social welfare will have to increase to support Taiwan’s aging population and that Twain’s pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system will place an increasingly heavy burden on the working-age population (page 9). Adding to this already nightmarish equation is the fact that Taiwan’s most recently recorded labour force participation rate (2021) was 62.7%. Therefore, these figures overstate the number of workers available to support retirees today. Though China may be a more immediate threat, clearly an unprecedented and unsustainable tax burden is emerging in Taiwan.

More for subscribers:  
See more...The Alarming Cost of Aging Demographics
See more...See more data for Taiwan...
See more...See more Fertility Rate data...
See more...See more 'Number of Workers to Each Elderly Dependent' data...



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