Ⅲ. HOUSEHOLD REGISTRATION AFFAIRS
I. Organizational Structure
Handling of household registration affairs is the raison d’etre of the Republic of China, and this function exists principally to protect the rights and interests of our people by supplying detailed and accurate demographic information whenever necessary. The supervision of household affairs administration falls within the purview of the Ministry of the Interior together with the household affairs offices of county governments, which also handle these matters. Both of these agencies have wide jurisdictional powers in order to accomplish their objectives. When the population in a given area exceeds 300,000, it is our policy to establish a new household affairs office to handle pertinent registrations. See Figure 3-1 for details of this system.
In July 1969, local household registration affairs were put under the jurisdiction of the police authorities on a trial basis. We took this move according to a policy set forth in the combined household registration and police affairs programs. However, in May 1991, when the rebellion-suppression period was terminated, we amended the “Household Registration Law” accordingly. Thus, household registration and police affairs were separated in July 1992, returning household affairs to the civil administration system. Our government effected this change to conform to the principles of democracy.
Figure 3-1 Household Registration Administration System
Taipei
County (City) Governments Ministry of the Interior City Governments
Kaohsiung
Bureau of Civil Affairs … Dept. of Population … Bureau of Civil Affairs
. .
. .
Household Registration .………………………………………… Division of Household
Section Registration
.………………………………………………….
Legend: directing system
………… coordination system
guidance system
II. Household Registration
The ROC household registration program is designed to collate and to supply demographic information and also officially to recognize personal status and relations. Registrations required by the Household Registration Law are as follows:
1. Personal Identification Registration: Including registration of births, deaths, declarations of deaths, legitimization of children, adoptions, termination of adoptions, marriages, divorces, and custody arrangements.
2. Migratory Registration: This category includes registration of immigration, emigration, and changes in addresses.
3. Initial Household Registrations.
Through September of 1997, the "Household Registration and Conscription Information System" had successfully developed a network of 800 household registration and conscription administrative units all over the country. To provide more convenient services to the public, the Household Registration and Conscription Information System had also built up a network of information systems throughout 642 government agencies by the end of year the 2004. These efforts resulted in the construction of a foundation for the government to provide complete services to our people and also to make the services of household registration simple, innovative and convenient. During recent technological innovations commencing in 2004, we implemented our new E-Domicile Administration Plan. Furthermore, we will implement the “Overall Reissue of National Identity Cards” within 18 months commencing in January of 2005. Our purpose in this program is to strengthen the foundationalstructure of e-government andalso to provide multiple application services to other government agencies and to the people.
Table 3-1 Population Registrations in Taiwan-Fuchien Area
2004
Unit: Person
Item of Registration / Total / Male / FemalePopulation of End of Year / 22 689 122 / 11 541 585 / 11 147 537
Immigration / 1 264 937 / 578 462 / 686 475
Emigration / 1 261 692 / 581 882 / 679 810
Birth / 216 419 / 113 639 / 102 780
Death / 135 092 / 83 696 / 51 396
Legitimization of Child Born / 4 940 / 2 623 / 2 317
Adoption / 2 752 / 1 339 / 1 413
Termination of Adoption / 945 / 501 / 444
Marriage (Couple) / 131 453 / - / -
Divorce (Couple) / 62 796 / - / -
Ⅲ. Nationality Administration
Nationality administration covers handling and management of nationality affairs, implementation of nationality policies, setting and amending of nationality laws and regulations, processing changes (acquisition, naturalization, renunciation and resumption) of nationality, compiling data on nationality changes, and issuing of nationality certificates. Statistics concerning nationality changes in the past five years are shown in Table 3-2.
Table 3-2 Acquiring and Renouncing Nationality
Unit: Person
Year / Acquiring Nationality / Renouncing NationalityTotal / Male / Female / Total / Male / Female
2000 / 5 198 / 63 / 5 135 / 763 / 261 / 502
2001 / 2 204 / 104 / 2 100 / 802 / 305 / 497
2002 / 1 533 / 117 / 1 416 / 814 / 307 / 507
2003 / 1 465 / 54 / 1 411 / 869 / 334 / 535
2004 / 6 552 / 111 / 6 441 / 824 / 320 / 504
Ⅳ. Household Registration Statistics
Household registration data concern statistical handling of household registration figures. That is, they involve data collection, processing, analysis, compilation and publication of relevant details. These efforts include natural, legal, social and educational status and various important events, which a person experiences from birth to death. Demographic statistics for the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas as the end of 2004 are shown in Table 3-3 and Figure 3-2.
Table 3-3 Households and Population in Taiwan-Fuchien Area
End of 2004
Locality / No. of Townships, Cities & Districts / No. of Villages / No. of Neighbor-hoods / No. of Households (1 000Households) / No. of Population
(1 000 Persons)
Total / Male / Female
Total / 368 / 7 810 / 146 225 / 7 180 / 22 689 / 11 542 / 11 147
Taiwan Area / 358 / 7 751 / 145 343 / 7 152 / 22 615 / 11 502 / 11 113
Taiwan Prov. / 335 / 6 839 / 127 419 / 5 692 / 18 480 / 9 457 / 9 023
TaipeiCity / 12 / 449 / 9 455 / 923 / 2 622 / 1 286 / 1 336
KaohsiungCity / 11 / 463 / 8 469 / 537 / 1 513 / 759 / 754
Fuchien Prov. / 10 / 59 / 882 / 28 / 74 / 39 / 34
Ⅴ. Population Policy
Since population is one of the essential foundational elements of a given nation, demographic characteristics are related closely to the strength and to the socioeconomic prosperity of that country. The Republic of China has a policy of maintaining reasonable population growth, of upgrading the quality of its population, and of promoting balanced national population distribution. With these points in mind, we are sparing no efforts to promote family planning, carry out eugenic health protection, and also to extending population education and revising those regulations that implicitly encourage fertility. We are also conducting publicity programs for population policies, and reinforcing research into the study of population problems. Our purpose is gradually to reduce the natural growth of our population, raise its quality and to balance population distribution. To adapt to contemporary socioeconomic developments, the “Guidelines for Population Policy of the Republic of China” and the “Population Policy Promotion Reinforcement Program” were revised again in April 1988.
The ROC birth rate has declined in recent years. However, excessively quick movement towards negative growth in population may cause such serious social problems as population aging and an excessively high dependent population ratio. To avoid these problems, the MOI revised its “Guidelines for Population Policy of the Republic of China” and the “Population Policy Promotion Reinforcement Program”, with the Executive Yuan approving these changes in October 1992. The purpose of this latest revision is to promote rational population growth.
Our government has for many years achieved outstanding goals in the promotion of its population policies and family planning programs. In 1987 and in 1992, the USA Population Crisis Committee rated the Republic of China’s population programs as the best among the world’s developing countries.
The population of the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas increased from 21,177,874 persons in 1994 to 22,689,122 persons in 2004. During this period, the natural population growth rate dropped from 10.27 to 3.59 per thousand (Figure 3-3). Population density at the end of 2004 was 627 persons per square kilometer in the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas. KaohsiungCity had the highest population density with 9,849 persons per square kilometer while TaipeiCity was second at 9,649 and TaichungCity was in third place at 6,249. TaitungCounty was lowest in population density with 68 persons per square kilometer. HualienCounty came in second lowest at 75 with NantouCounty third lowest at 131. Life expectancy in the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas was 73.60 years for males and 79.41 years for females in 2004. In comparison with a selected number of countries, life expectancy in the ROC is lower than that of Japan for both males and females, comparable to levels in Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom and South Korea, and much higher than in the Philippines. This comparison shows that life expectancy in our country is lower than in developed nations but higher than in developing countries, indicating that the ROC is moving toward the club of developed nations. Detailed statistics are shown in Table 3-4.
Table 3-4 Life Expectancy of Selected Nations
2004
Unit: Age
Country / Total / Male / FemaleRep. of China / 76 / 74 / 79
Japan / 82 / 78 / 85
United Kingdom / 78 / 76 / 80
United States / 77 / 75 / 80
Singapore / 79 / 77 / 81
South Korea / 77 / 73 / 80
Philippines / 70 / 67 / 72
Source: 2004 World Population Data Sheet.
Ⅵ. Promoting Migration Affairs Guidance
Overall prosperity and specific per-capita income levels have been increasing throughout the ROC during the past few years. These developments are attributable to political democratization, economical freedom and consistent, multicultural social innovations and frequent exchanges between the Republic of China Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition to citizen’s entry into and exit from each area, movements of people between Taiwan and Mainland China are increasing each year. Therefore, our government is reconsidering its policies toward immigration of mainland people into Taiwan. In particular, we are considering welcoming personnel with high-levels of education, professional individuals, and investment funds. In October 2004, we submitted a draft of “The Current Migration Policy” to the Executive Yuen for review. We are also now actively planning to prepare a preliminary version of a “Migration White Paper”.
ROC nationals have a tendency to emigrate overseas to develop their businesses. In order to promote international cooperation among people, the MOI plans to promote and guide migration affairs as follows:
1. Collect migration information for public reference purposes.
2. Help migration companies to develop their businesses legally.
3. Offer training programs for migration specialists.
4. Reinforce management of migration advertising.
5. Guide the establishment of migration associations.
6. Promote guidance of migration activities.
7. Assist foreign spouses of citizens in Taiwan to live comfortably.
8. Guide marriage brokers to develop their business legally.
In order to take charge of such affairs as emigration, entry and exit, management of foreign expatriates, and verification of various travel documents, certificates and licenses, the government began enforcing an “Immigration Law” in May 1999. Emigration from the Taiwan-Fuchien Area to major destinations is shown in Table 3-5.
Table 3-5 Emigrants from Taiwan-Fuchien Area
Unit: Person
Year / Total / United States / Canada / Australia / New Zealand / Singapore / Brazil / Argentina / Paraguay / South Africa2000 / 14 954 / 9 040 / 3 359 / 1 114 / 666 / 88 / 278 / 65 / 125 / 219
2001 / 11 678 / 6 251 / 3 118 / 891 / 716 / 106 / 200 / 135 / 108 / 153
2002 / 12 114 / 5 545 / 2 910 / 1 715 / 1 296 / - / 315 / 149 / 71 / 113
2003 / 8 658 / 4 956 / 2 158 / 999 / 261 / - / 80 / - / 55 / 149
2004 / 8 072 / 5 002 / 1 988 / 806 / 73 / - / 70 / - / 20 / 113
Sources: Various ROC overseas missions.
Remarks: 1.The figures for Australia and New Zealand are the same as for the next fiscal year. (July 01st to June 31st)
2. Figures related to Singapore refer to people who renounced ROC nationality at the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore.
3. Figures related to Paraguay in 2001 included Mainland Chinese emigrants.
4. Figures related to the Republic of South Africa in 2000 and 2001 concern immigrants.
From 1990 to 2004 foreign and Mainland-China national spouses in the ROC equaled 336,483 persons. Among these people, the figure for foreign national spouses was 121,804, while that for other Mainland-China national spouses was 214,679. The currentMigration Policies of the Republic of China function within the concept of respecting the welfare of foreign nationals and Mainland-China national spouses. These stratagems involve the ideals of “strict personal identification while living in freedom”. People living in Taiwan who are aliens or who originate in Mainland China, are living among the peoples of the Republic of China and are responsible for family income and also for taking care of their children. We are thus determined to assist foreign and Mainland China national spouses to adapt to ROC living conditions and to enjoy medical care, gainful employment, education of their children and so on. With these points in mind, we have carefully drafted eight principle job categories and 56 programs in order to make their living here easier.
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