Taiwan
Name
| Official name | Republic of China — Zhonghua Minguo (中華民國); "Republic of China (Taiwan)" on the passport since 2003 and in the government's usage; Taiwan (Taiwan) the short form of the world; "Chinese Taipei" at the Olympics, the WHO and APEC, the "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" at the WTO; TWN |
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| Former names | Formosa (Ilha Formosa, "the beautiful island," of the Portuguese of the 1540s, the name of the maps to the 20th century); Tayouan of the Dutch (1624–62), the Kingdom of Tungning of Koxinga (1662–83), Taiwan Prefecture of the Qing's Fujian (1684) and Taiwan Province (1887); Taihoku's Taiwan of Japan (1895–1945); the Republic of Formosa of 1895's five months; "Free China" of the Cold War; the Republic of China since 1912 and on the island since 1945 |
| Demonym | Taiwanese; the Hoklo ("Taiwanese" in the narrow sense), the Hakka, the "mainlanders" of 1949 (waishengren) and the indigenous peoples (yuanzhumin) the old four; "the people of Taiwan" the constitution's; "Chinese" the contested word |
| Meaning of the name | "Taiwan" from Tayouan (Taioan), the Siraya name of the sandbar and bay by Tainan where the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia in 1624, spread by the Chinese settlers to the island (the folk reading "terraced bay"); "Formosa" the Portuguese "beautiful"; "Republic of China" the state of 1912; "Penghu" the "lake of the surge," "Kinmen" the "golden gate" of 1387's fort; "Taipei" the "north of Taiwan" |
| Motto | None by law — "Ethics, Democracy and Science" (the Three Principles of the People of Sun Yat-sen — nationalism, democracy, the people's livelihood) the constitution's creed; "Taiwan can help" of the pandemic and "Democracy, peace, prosperity" of the presidency by the reports |
Quick facts
| Capital | Taipei (Taibei) — the seat of the Republic of China's government since December 1949 (Nanjing the capital of 1927–49; Taipei the seat of the central government since), the provincial capital since 1887, Taihoku of the Japanese (1895–1945); about 2.4 million in the city, about 7 million in the Taipei–Keelung metropolis; the Presidential Office (1919) on Ketagalan Boulevard, the five Yuans, Taipei 101 (508 m), the National Palace Museum, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, the Longshan Temple of 1738, the night markets; the Tamsui river and the volcanoes of Yangmingshan; mayor Chiang Wan-an (KMT) since 2022, up for re-election on 28 November 2026 against the DPP's Puma Shen |
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| Largest cities | New Taipei (about 4 million; the ring of Banqiao, Zhonghe, Xinzhuang, Sanchong and Tamsui around the capital), Taichung (about 2.8 million; the machine-tool belt and the Taichung Opera House), Kaohsiung (about 2.7 million; the port of the world's top 20, the steel, the petrochemicals and the Formosa Boulevard station), Taipei (about 2.4 million), Taoyuan (about 2.3 million; the airport and the factories), Tainan (about 1.8 million; the oldest city, the Dutch fort and Koxinga's capital, the temples and the food), Hsinchu (the science park of TSMC, MediaTek and the 1980 founding; about 450,000 in the city and a million with the county), Keelung (the northern port), Chiayi, Changhua, Pingtung, Hualien, Taitung, Yilan, Kinmen — the six special municipalities seven in ten of the people; the Ministry of the Interior's registers of 2026 |
| Official language | Standard Chinese (Mandarin; Guoyu) in the traditional characters — the language of the state, the schools and the courts since 1945, with the Bopomofo phonetics; the Development of National Languages Act of 2018 makes Taiwanese Hokkien (Taigi; about 70% of the people speak it), Hakka (about 15%), the 16 Formosan languages of the indigenous peoples (Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Truku, Puyuma, Rukai, Tsou, Saisiyat, Yami, Thao, Kavalan, Sakizaya, Seediq, Hla'alua, Kanakanavu) and Taiwan Sign Language national languages too, with Hakka and the indigenous languages by their own acts (2017); Japanese of the elders, English the state's "bilingual 2030" hope; the Wade–Giles of the old names and the Hanyu Pinyin of the new |
| Currency | New Taiwan dollar (ISO code TWD; NT$; the yuan or kuai), of 100 cents — about 31.8 to the U.S. dollar on 28 September 2026 by the market's counts (about 29 at the surge of May 2025, about 33 in 2024); the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (1961 on the island; Governor Yang Chin-long since February 2018), the policy rate 2.0% since March 2024, held for the tenth meeting on 17 September 2026; the notes of 100 to 2,000 dollars, the coins of 1 to 50; the old Taiwan dollar exchanged at 40,000 to 1 on 15 June 1949; the foreign reserves of about US$600 billion by the bank's counts, among the world's largest |
| Time zone | National Standard Time, UTC+8 (the same as Beijing, Hong Kong and Manila), all year — the summer time of 1945–61, 1974–75 and 1979 gone |
| Calling code | +886 |
| Internet domain | .tw (since 1989; TWNIC) and the Chinese .台灣 and .台湾 (2010) |
| ISO 3166 codes | TW · TWN · 158 ("Taiwan, Province of China" in the ISO's own name, the wording Taipei rejects) |
| Vehicle registration code | RC (the Republic of China) |
| Driving side | Right (since 1946; the left of the Japanese years) |
| Electricity | 110 V, 60 Hz; plug types A and B (the American pattern) |
| Independence | None declared — the Republic of China founded 1 January 1912 at Nanjing (the revolution of 10 October 1911, the National Day); the island under the Republic since 25 October 1945 (Retrocession Day; the Japanese surrender at Taipei), the government here since 7 December 1949; the Treaty of San Francisco (1951/52) in which Japan gave up Taiwan without naming a taker, the root of the argument; the state "already independent" as the Republic of China in the reading of the DPP's resolution of 1999 and of President Lai, a province of one China in Beijing's, a question of the people's choice in the polls — both stated (LAW 2) |
| National days | National Day (Double Ten), 10 October, the Wuchang uprising of 1911 — the parade on Ketagalan Boulevard, the President's address; New Year (1 January; the founding of the Republic), the Lunar New Year (the week of the Spring Festival), Peace Memorial Day (28 February; the massacre of 1947), Children's Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day (4–5 April), Labor Day (1 May), the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Retrocession Day (25 October; a holiday again from 2025 by the opposition's law), Constitution Day (25 December; a holiday again), the Teachers' Day of Confucius's birthday (28 September; a holiday again from 2025), the indigenous peoples' Tribal Day |
| Constitution | The Constitution of the Republic of China, adopted at Nanjing 25 December 1946 and in force 25 December 1947, with the Additional Articles of 1991–2005 (seven rounds; the Temporary Provisions of 1948–91 that froze it under martial law repealed 1 May 1991) — the five-power state of Sun Yat-sen: the Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Examination and Control Yuans, the President elected by the people since 1996 (four years, twice), the Legislative Yuan of 113 since 2008, the National Assembly abolished 2005, the amendment by three-quarters of the legislature and a referendum of half the electorate (the vote of 26 November 2022 to lower the voting age to 18 failed the threshold); the Constitutional Court of 15 justices (the Court Procedure Act of 2022); the amendments of 20 December 2024 by the KMT–TPP majority that the Court needed 10 justices to rule, struck down by the five sitting justices on 19 December 2025 by the reports — the majority's case (a court of the President's appointees must not rule with a handful) and the DPP's (a legislature may not switch off the court) — both stated (LAW 2); the territory clause of "the existing national boundaries" the unresolved word |
| Population | 23,224,721 at the end of August 2026 by the Ministry of the Interior's register — down 103,622 in a year and 10,281 in the month, the 32nd month of decline in a row: 7,492 births in August against 16,470 deaths (a crude birth rate of 3.8 per 1,000); 107,812 births in 2025, the fewest ever, and the fertility rate under 0.8, the lowest of the world by the counts; 23,299,132 at the end of 2025 (−101,088); the peak of 23.6 million in 2019; the over-65s 4,673,155, 20.06% — a "super-aged" society since 2025; the median age about 45; about 600,000 indigenous, about 600,000 "new residents" by marriage and about 830,000 migrant workers (Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand); New Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taoyuan and Tainan the fullest; the 56th of the world |
| Area | 36,197 km² (13,976 sq mi) by the Ministry of the Interior's count (35,980 by the Factbook's; both stated) — the main island 35,808 km², Penghu 127, Kinmen 152, Matsu (Lienchiang) 29, Green Island, Orchid Island, Pratas (Dongsha) and Taiping Island (Itu Aba) the rest; the 136th of the world; land about 90%, the inland water of the reservoirs and lakes about 10% by the Factbook's count; no land border; the coast 1,566 km; 394 km from Fugui Cape to Eluanbi, 144 km at the widest; the Tropic of Cancer across Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi and Penghu; the strait 130 km at its narrowest (Kinmen 2 km from Xiamen); the ROC's constitutional claim to the mainland and Mongolia dormant since the 1990s |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A red field with a blue canton bearing a white sun of twelve rays — "Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth" (Qing Tian Bai Ri Man Di Hong): the blue-sky-white-sun of Lu Haodong's design for the Revive China Society of 1895, the red field added by Sun Yat-sen in 1906, the Nationalist flag of the Northern Expedition and the national flag of the Republic of China since 17 December 1928 (in law 1928 and the constitution's Article 6 of 1947), 2:3, the twelve rays the twelve months and the twelve two-hour watches of the day, the three colors Sun's three principles — nationalism, democracy and the people's livelihood; carried to Taiwan in 1945 and 1949, flown on the Double Ten and over Kinmen's Juguang Tower, banned at the Olympics since 1981 (the plum-blossom flag of Chinese Taipei instead) and in the mainland's sight, the flag the DPP's governments keep and the Kuomintang's party emblem doubles; the blue-sky-white-sun the canton, the party's own flag. Flag of Taiwan |
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| Coat of arms | The national emblem — the blue sky with a white sun of twelve rays (the emblem of 1928; the sun of Lu Haodong's flag of 1895), on the passport, the seals and the Presidential Office; the Kuomintang's emblem the same sun on a blue disc without the sky's ring, the likeness the DPP has long objected to; the Chinese Taipei Olympic emblem the plum blossom of five petals with the sun and the Olympic rings (1981); the plum blossom the national flower on the coins |
| National anthem | The "National Anthem of the Republic of China" (Zhonghua Minguo Guoge; "San Min Chu-i," the Three Principles of the People) — the words of Sun Yat-sen's address of 1924 to the Whampoa Military Academy, the music of Cheng Maoyun (1928), the Kuomintang's party anthem made the national anthem in 1937; sung at the flag-raising and the inauguration, its "our party" (wu dang) the line the DPP's presidents sing or skip by the reports; the "National Flag Anthem" of Huang Tzu (1937) the tune played for Chinese Taipei's medals at the Games where the anthem is banned |
| National motto | None by law — Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles (nationalism, democracy, the people's livelihood) the constitution's Article 1; "Ethics, Democracy and Science" of the old schools; the presidency's "Democracy, peace, prosperity" by the reports |
| National colors | Blue, white and red of the flag — the blue of the Kuomintang's sky, the red of the earth; the DPP's green and the KMT's blue the colors of the two camps (the "pan-green" and the "pan-blue"), the TPP's white the third; the plum blossom's pink; the Chinese Taipei teams in white and red, the baseball team's "Team Taiwan" blue |
| National animal | None by law — the Formosan black bear (the white V on its chest; about 500 left by the estimates) the animal of the campaigns, the Mikado pheasant and the Swinhoe's pheasant of the notes, the Formosan sika (reintroduced at Kenting), the Formosan landlocked salmon of the Qijiawan (the ice-age relic), the Formosan blue magpie (the "national bird" by the vote of 2007), the black-faced spoonbill that winters at Tainan's Qigu (half the world's), the Formosan rock macaque, the Taiwan blue pheasant, the clouded leopard gone; the dogs of Taiwan (the Formosan mountain dog) |
| National flower and tree | The plum blossom (Prunus mume), the national flower by the Executive Yuan's decision of 21 July 1964 — the three stamens' clusters for the Three Principles, the five petals for the five powers, the flower of winter's endurance on the coins and the Olympic emblem; the Taiwan red cypress (Chamaecyparis formosensis, the hinoki of Alishan's giants, 2,000 years old) and the Taiwan cypress by custom, the camphor tree of the old trade, the betel palm of the roadside stands, the Formosan cherry of Yangmingshan's spring |
| National dish | Beef noodle soup (niurou mian) by custom and the Taipei festival of 2005 — with the braised pork rice (lu rou fan), the oyster omelet and the stinky tofu of the night markets, the xiaolongbao of Din Tai Fung (1958), the gua bao, the Tainan danzai noodles and milkfish, the pineapple cake, the mango shaved ice, the Hakka stir-fry, the Taiwanese sausage; bubble tea (boba; the pearl milk tea of the 1980s, Taichung's Chun Shui Tang and Tainan's Hanlin both claiming it) the island's gift to the world, the oolong of Alishan and the high mountains, the Kavalan whisky of Yilan, the Taiwan Beer of 1919 |
| National sport | Baseball by custom — the Premier12 title of 23 November 2024 at Tokyo (Japan beaten 4–0 in the final; the first world title), the World Baseball Classic of March 2026 (Pool C at Tokyo: Australia 0–3, Japan 0–13, Czechia 14–0, South Korea 5–4; fourth of the pool on the tiebreak, out), the CPBL of six teams since 1990 (the CTBC Brothers, the Rakuten Monkeys, the Uni-President Lions, the Fubon Guardians, the Wei Chuan Dragons, the TSG Hawks), the Taipei Dome (2023), the Little League titles of the 1970s, Chien-Ming Wang and the major leaguers; basketball (the P. League+ and the T1 merged), badminton (Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin's Olympic golds of 2021 and 2024, Tai Tzu-ying, Chou Tien-chen), table tennis (Lin Yun-ju), weightlifting (Kuo Hsing-chun's gold of 2021), boxing (Lin Yu-ting's gold of Paris 2024), taekwondo, archery, golf (Yani Tseng), cycling; the Olympic medals ×7 at Paris 2024 (2 gold, 5 bronze); THE ASIAN GAMES OF AICHI-NAGOYA 2026 (19 September – 4 October) — 33 medals by the evening of 28 September (3 gold, 7 silver, 23 bronze; Fu Chao-hsuan's high jump gold of 27 September the first men's athletics title in 60 years); the Ministry of Sports since 9 September 2025 under Lee Yang |
| Heritage listings | UNESCO World Heritage none — Taiwan is outside UNESCO; the Ministry of Culture's own tentative list of 18 "potential world heritage sites" (the Taroko Gorge, Yushan, the Alishan Forest Railway, the Penghu basalt columns, the Orchid Island of the Tao, the Kinmen battlefield, the Tamsui forts, the Wushantou reservoir, the Datun volcanoes, the Beinan site); the national parks ×9 (Kenting 1984, Yushan, Yangmingshan, Taroko, Shei-Pa, Kinmen, Dongsha Atoll, Taijiang, South Penghu Marine) and the Shoushan national nature park; the 16 indigenous peoples' rites; the Ramsar list none (the Guandu, Qigu and Aogu wetlands of the national list); the Alishan and the Beitou geothermal |
| Symbol status | The flag by the law of 1928 and Article 6 of the Constitution; the emblem by the law of 1928; the anthem by the government's decision of 1937; the plum blossom by the Executive Yuan's decision of 1964; the National Day by law; the holidays by the act of 2025 (Retrocession Day, Constitution Day, Teachers' Day and Peace Memorial Day restored); no animal, dish or sport by law — by custom and the votes; the Chinese Taipei name and emblem by the Nagoya resolution of 1981 with the IOC |
Geography
| Location | East Asia, in the western Pacific between 21°45′ and 25°56′ N and 119°18′ and 124°34′ E — the island 130 km off the coast of Fujian across the Taiwan Strait (the Pescadores in between), the East China Sea to the north and the Philippine Sea to the east, the Bashi Channel and the Luzon Strait to the Philippines' Batanes 150 km south, Japan's Yonaguni 110 km east of Hualien; on the Tropic of Cancer, on the Ring of Fire where the Philippine Sea plate dives under the Eurasian; the Senkaku/Diaoyutai islets claimed, Taiping Island held 1,600 km away in the Spratlys; the "first island chain" of the strategists |
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| Land borders | None — an island state; the sea boundaries unmarked by treaty: the median line of the Taiwan Strait that the Chinese air force crosses daily since 2020 (125 crossings of the ADIZ in August 2026 by the AEI's count, half the year before's; the Justice Mission drills of 29–30 December 2025), Kinmen's restricted waters 2 km off Xiamen (the coast guard's four incursions a month), the Pratas, the Japanese fishing line of the 2013 agreement, the Philippine line of 2015; the customs by the sea and the air |
| Coastline | 1,566 km — the west's mudflats, lagoons and fishponds from Tamsui to Kaohsiung (the Zhuoshui delta, the Tainan lagoons of the spoonbills, the ports of Taichung and Kaohsiung), the north's rocks of Yehliu's Queen's Head and the Keelung harbor, the east's cliffs of Qingshui (1,000 m into the Pacific) and the black gravel of Hualien and Taitung, the south's coral of Kenting and the Eluanbi lighthouse of 1883; Penghu's 90 islands of basalt, Kinmen and Matsu on the Chinese shore, Green Island's prison and Orchid Island's Tao canoes; the ports of Kaohsiung (the world's top 20), Keelung, Taichung, Taipei (Bali), Hualien, Anping and Su'ao; the Kuroshio current off the east, the whales of Hualien; the beaches of Fulong and Kenting, the surf of Jinzun; the EEZ claimed and contested |
| Highest point | Yushan (Jade Mountain), 3,952 m (12,966 ft), the summit of the Central Range in the Yushan National Park (Nantou–Chiayi–Kaohsiung) — the highest of Taiwan and of the islands of the western Pacific north of New Guinea, the Niitakayama ("new high mountain") of the Japanese, higher than Fuji; the 268 peaks above 3,000 m of the "Baiyue" (the 100 peaks of the climbers) — Xueshan 3,886 m, Xiuguluan 3,825 m, Nanhu 3,742 m, Beidawu 3,092 m of the south; the Central, Xueshan, Yushan, Alishan and Coastal ranges; the Hehuanshan pass at 3,275 m, the highest road; Alishan's sunrise at 2,216 m; Qixingshan 1,120 m the top of Taipei's volcanoes; the Taroko Gorge of the Liwu river's marble |
| Lowest point | The sea, 0 m, along the coasts — the Taipei basin at about 10 m, the Chianan and Pingtung plains of the west near sea level, the Yilan plain of the northeast, the Hualien–Taitung rift valley at 100–300 m between the ranges; the land subsiding along the west coast by the pumped aquifers (Yunlin and Changhua sinking a few centimeters a year by the surveys) |
| Mean elevation | About 1,150 m by the Factbook's count — two-thirds of the island mountain (the Central Range along its length, 3,000-m peaks by the hundreds, the foothills of the tea and the betel), a third the western plain of the cities and the rice (the Taoyuan tableland, the Taichung basin, the Chianan and Pingtung plains), the Taipei basin of the north, the rift valley of the east; the tallest island peak of the world after New Guinea's, Hawaii's and Borneo's by the counts |
| Rivers | Short, steep and torrential — the Zhuoshui (186 km; the longest, from the Central Range to the strait at Changhua–Yunlin, the "muddy water" of the island's dividing line between north and south), the Gaoping (171 km; the largest by basin, to Kaohsiung), the Tamsui (159 km; the Keelung and the Xindian joining under Taipei, the one navigable river of old, the Danshui of the sunset), the Dajia (the Central Cross-Island Highway's gorge and the Shihmen dam's neighbor the Dahan), the Zengwen (the largest reservoir, 1973, of Tainan), the Wu of Taichung, the Lanyang of Yilan, the Xiuguluan of the east (the rafting of Ruisui), the Liwu of Taroko, the Beinan of Taitung; the reservoirs of Zengwen, Shihmen (1964), Feitsui (Taipei's, 1987), Wushantou (1930; the Japanese engineer Hatta Yoichi's) and Deji; the water of 2,500 mm of rain a year that runs to the sea in days, the droughts of 2021 that idled the chip fabs' trucks |
| Lakes | Sun Moon Lake (Riyuetan; 7.9 km², 748 m up in Nantou; the largest, a lake of the Thao people raised by the Japanese dam of 1934 for the power station; the Ci'en Pagoda, the Wenwu temple, the swim of September), the Zengwen, Shihmen and Feitsui reservoirs, the Wushantou of Hatta's dam, the Liyu Lake of Hualien, the Chengcing Lake of Kaohsiung, the Lotus Pond of Zuoying, the Dapeng Bay lagoon of Pingtung, the Qigu lagoon of the spoonbills, the Yuanyang and Cuifeng alpine lakes of the Xueshan, the Jiaming Lake of the Central Range at 3,310 m (the "angel's tear"), the Dongsha atoll's lagoon |
| Terrain | A mountain island tilted to the west — the Central Range's spine (the Xueshan, Yushan and Alishan ranges beside it) of steep forested peaks above 3,000 m, dropping in cliffs to the Pacific on the east (the Coastal Range and the rift valley of Hualien–Taitung); the western foothills and the tablelands (Taoyuan, Linkou, the Miaoli hills of the Hakka); the western plain of 30 km at its widest from Taoyuan to Pingtung, the rice, the fishponds and the cities; the Taipei basin of the north with the Datun volcanoes; the Yilan plain of the northeast; Penghu's flat basalt, Kinmen's granite hills, the Kenting coral tableland; 60% forest, 22% farmed, the rest the cities and the rock; the marble of Hualien, the gorges of Taroko and the Sun Moon hills; the coral reefs of the south and Green Island |
| Climate | Subtropical in the north and tropical in the south, the Tropic of Cancer across the middle — Taipei about 16°C in January and 30°C in July (the humid summers, the wet gray winters of the northeast monsoon), Kaohsiung 19°C to 29°C and dry in winter, the mountains temperate to alpine (Yushan below freezing, the snow of Hehuanshan), Alishan's cloud forest; the rain about 2,500 mm a year (the east and the north wetter, the plum rains of May–June, the typhoons' deluges of July–October, up to 3,000 mm in a storm on the mountains — Morakot's about 2,800 mm of 2009 the record), the typhoons three or four a year (Danas of July 2025 on Chiayi; Ragasa of 23 September 2025 that burst the Mataian barrier lake over Guangfu in Hualien, 18 dead; Mekkhala of 28 June 2026, six dead; Bavi of 10–11 July 2026 past the north); the record about 40.6°C at Taimali in Taitung (July 2020) by the counts; the warming of the seas; the droughts of 2021 and the water rationing of the chip fabs |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes on the plate boundary — the Jiji (921) earthquake of 21 September 1999 (magnitude 7.3–7.6; 2,415 dead, 100,000 homes), the Hualien earthquakes of 6 February 2018 (17 dead) and 3 April 2024 (magnitude 7.4; 18 dead, the Taroko Gorge closed), the Meinong of 2016 (117 dead at Tainan's Weiguan tower); the typhoons — Morakot (8 August 2009; 673 dead, the village of Xiaolin buried), Ragasa's barrier-lake flood of 23 September 2025 (Guangfu, 18 dead), Mekkhala (June 2026, six dead); the landslides and debris flows of the mountains, the floods of the plains, the land subsidence of the west, the droughts, the volcanic Datun and the Guishan; the fires of the factories (the Zhongli metal plant of 9 July 2026); the trainer crash of Gangshan (2 June 2026, two dead), the F-16V lost off Hualien (6 January 2026); the Hsinchu gas blast (9 June 2026, two dead); the cooking-oil recall (July 2026); the strait's shadow |
| Natural resources | Few — small coal (the mines of Keelung's hills closed), natural gas (the Miaoli fields of the CPC, the offshore Tainan), limestone, marble of Hualien (the Taroko quarries), asbestos, the timber of the cypress forests (logging ended 1991), the camphor of the old monopoly, the sulfur of Yangmingshan, the gold of Jiufen's Jinguashi (mined out 1987), the geothermal of Beitou and Yilan, the offshore wind of the strait (the Formosa and Greater Changhua farms; among the world's best winds), the rain and the reservoirs, the fisheries of the Kuroshio (the tuna fleet of Kaohsiung and Donggang); the sand, the fishponds; and the people — the engineers of the science parks the one resource that counts, the semiconductors made of imported silicon and the island's brains |
| Land use | Forest about 60% (the cypress and the broadleaf of the mountains; the national forests of the Forestry Agency), agricultural about 22% by the Factbook's count (arable about 17%, permanent crops 5%; the rice paddies of the west, the tea of the hills, the betel palms of the south, the fruit of Tainan and Pingtung, the fishponds of the coast), the cities, the roads and the factories about 15% and growing on the western plain; the farmland lost to the science parks and the solar fields the argument; the protected areas about a fifth of the land (the nine national parks, the nature reserves, the wildlife refuges); the aquaculture of the milkfish, the tilapia and the grouper; the farms small (about a hectare) and the farmers old |
| National parks | Nine — Kenting (1 January 1984; the first, the coral coast of the south), Yushan (1985; the highest), Yangmingshan (1985; Taipei's volcanoes and the cherry blossoms), Taroko (1986; the marble gorge, closed in part since the earthquake of 2024), Shei-Pa (1992; Xueshan and Dabajianshan), Kinmen (1995; the battlefield), Dongsha Atoll (2007; the marine park of the Pratas), Taijiang (2009; the Tainan lagoons and the spoonbills), South Penghu Marine (2014); the Shoushan National Nature Park of Kaohsiung (2011); the national scenic areas ×13 (Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, the East Coast, the North Coast, Penghu, Maolin...); the Fushan botanical garden, the Guandu wetland; the Formosan black bears of Yushan, the sika of Kenting, the spoonbills of Qigu |
| UNESCO World Heritage | None — the Republic of China left the United Nations in 1971 and is outside UNESCO's conventions (Beijing's veto); the Ministry of Culture's list of 18 potential sites since 2002 — the Taroko Gorge, Yushan, the Alishan Forest Railway, the Penghu basalt columns, the Orchid Island of the Tao, the Kinmen battlefield and its Minnan villages, the Tamsui forts (Fort San Domingo of 1644), the Wushantou reservoir and the Chianan irrigation, the Datun volcanoes, the Beinan prehistoric site, the Dahu and Beitou hot springs, the Pinglin tea hills, the Taipei of the Japanese era, the salt fields, the Sanxiantai; the intangible list of the Ministry (the Mazu pilgrimage of Dajia, the Yanshui beehive fireworks, the Pingxi lanterns, the indigenous harvest festivals, the puppet theater) |
| Administrative divisions | 22 — six special municipalities (Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung; four raised in 2010 and Taoyuan in 2014), three provincial cities (Keelung, Hsinchu, Chiayi) and 13 counties (Yilan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Penghu, Kinmen, Lienchiang/Matsu) — the last two the Fujian Province of the ROC, the rest the Taiwan Province, both provinces' governments streamlined away (1998, 2018); 368 townships, districts and county-run cities; the mayors and magistrates elected 28 November 2026 (the KMT's 14, the DPP's 5, the TPP's Hsinchu, the independents' 2 by the counts of 2022–24); the indigenous townships of the mountains; the offshore Pratas and Taiping under Kaohsiung's Cijin |
People
| Population | 23,224,721 at the end of August 2026 (the Ministry of the Interior; −103,622 in the year, the 32nd month of decline), 23,299,132 at the end of 2025 (−101,088), the peak of 23.6 million in 2019 — the deaths (about 200,000 a year) double the births (107,812 in 2025; 7,492 in August 2026); the over-65s 20.06% (2025), the under-15s about 11%; the Han Chinese about 95% (the Hoklo about 70%, the Hakka about 15%, the "mainlanders" of 1949 and their children about 12% by the old counts), the indigenous Austronesians about 2.5% (about 600,000; the 16 peoples), the "new residents" of the marriages about 600,000 (Vietnam, China, Indonesia, the Philippines), the migrant workers about 830,000; New Taipei (about 4 million), Taichung (2.8), Kaohsiung (2.7), Taipei (2.4), Taoyuan (2.3), Tainan (1.8) the six municipalities' seven in ten |
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| Population density | About 642 to the km² — among the ten densest countries of the world (the second of those above 10 million by the counts, after Bangladesh) and far denser on the western plain where nine in ten live: Taipei about 8,800 to the km², New Taipei 2,000, Taoyuan 1,900, Taichung 1,300, Kaohsiung 900, the Central Range and the east all but empty (Hualien 70, Taitung 60); the Taipei–Keelung metropolis of 7 million on a basin of a few hundred km² |
| Population growth | About −0.4% a year (2025–26) — the natural decrease of about 100,000 a year (about 108,000 births against about 200,000 deaths in 2025), the net migration small (the migrant workers on contracts, the new residents, the emigrants to the mainland, Japan and America); the fertility rate under 0.8 in 2025 (0.87 in 2024; 1.05 in 2019; 7.0 in 1951), the lowest of the world by the counts, below South Korea's for the first time; the National Development Council's projection of under 20 million by 2050 and the "national security" of the empty cradles; the birth bonuses, the childcare and the fertility subsidies of the 2020s |
| Median age | About 45 years (2026) — one in five past 65 (the "super-aged" threshold of 20% crossed in 2025), one in nine under 15; the retirement age 65 (the labor pension's) and the military's shrinking cohorts (the one-year conscription of 2024 on the classes of 2005 and after); the schools closing in the countryside, the universities merging |
| Life expectancy | About 81 years by the Ministry of the Interior's count of 2024 (women about 84, men about 78; 80.2 in 2023 after the pandemic's dip; 81.3 in 2020, the peak) — the National Health Insurance of 1 March 1995 (single-payer, 99.9% of the people, the IC card, the premiums of about 5% of wages; the world's model of the cheap and the universal, the hospitals of the Chang Gung, the NTU and the Veterans General), infant mortality about 4 per 1,000, the cancers the first cause of death, the dengue of the south, the pandemic of 2020–22 (about 20,000 dead; the "Taiwan model" of 2020); the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Shih Chung-liang since September 2025 |
| Fertility rate | Under 0.8 children per woman in 2025 by the Ministry of the Interior's count (0.87 in 2024 and 2023 by the counts; 1.05 in 2019, 1.78 in 1995, 7.0 in 1951) — the lowest of the world, below South Korea's for the first time; 107,812 births in 2025, the fewest on record, the crude rate 4.62 per 1,000; the marriages fewer and later (the women's first birth about 32), the housing and the schooling the reasons the surveys name; the same-sex marriages since 24 May 2019 (about 15,000 couples by the counts) |
| Urban population | About 80% by the UN's count — the six special municipalities' 70% of the people (New Taipei 4 million, Taichung 2.8, Kaohsiung 2.7, Taipei 2.4, Taoyuan 2.3, Tainan 1.8), the Taipei–Keelung metropolis of 7 million, the Taichung–Changhua of 3 million, the Kaohsiung–Pingtung of 3 million; the Hsinchu science-park boom of the 2020s (the fastest-growing county); the countryside of the rice plain and the mountains emptying; the apartment towers of the cities, the illegal rooftop additions, the scooters of 14 million |
| Adult literacy | About 99% — the compulsory 12 years since 2014 (the nine of 1968), the cram schools (buxiban) of the evenings, the PISA ranks in the world's top five in mathematics; the universities of about 150 (too many for the births, the mergers and the closures), the National Taiwan University (1928; the Taihoku Imperial University), the National Tsing Hua and Chiao Tung of Hsinchu (the engineers of the fabs), the National Cheng Kung of Tainan, the Academia Sinica (1928); the thousands of engineers TSMC hires a year; the "bilingual 2030" plan and the English of the young; the Nobel of Yuan T. Lee (chemistry, 1986; the Academia Sinica's president after) and of the Taiwan-born; the Ministry of Education of Cheng Ying-yao |
| Ethnic groups | Han Chinese about 95% — the Hoklo (Minnan; about 70%; the settlers of Fujian's Quanzhou and Zhangzhou from the 17th century), the Hakka (about 15%; the hills of Miaoli, Hsinchu, Taoyuan and Meinong), the "mainlanders" (waishengren; about 12%; the 1.2 million who came with the Nationalists in 1945–50 and their children); the indigenous Austronesian peoples about 2.5% (about 600,000; the Amis of the east coast the largest at about 220,000, the Paiwan, the Atayal, the Bunun, the Truku, the Puyuma, the Rukai, the Tsou, the Saisiyat, the Yami (Tao) of Orchid Island, the Thao of Sun Moon Lake, the Kavalan, the Sakizaya, the Seediq, the Hla'alua and the Kanakanavu — the 16 recognized peoples, the Pingpu plains peoples' recognition the Constitutional Court's order of 2022); the "new residents" about 600,000 (the wives and husbands from Vietnam, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand); the migrant workers about 830,000; the census of ancestry none — the four groups of the old politics fading into one Taiwanese identity by the polls (two-thirds "Taiwanese only") |
| Languages | Mandarin (Guoyu) the official and the common tongue of all since 1945, in traditional characters; Taiwanese Hokkien (Taigi; about 70% speak it, fewer of the young; the language of the south and the DPP's rallies), Hakka (about 15%; six dialects), the 16 Formosan languages (the Austronesian family's homeland by the linguists — the languages of the world's Austronesians from Madagascar to Hawaii trace to Taiwan's; about 200,000 speakers, most endangered), Japanese of the elders, the Chinese of the new residents (the Cantonese, the Vietnamese and the Indonesian of the marriages), English of the schools and the science parks (the "bilingual nation" of 2030); the Bopomofo of the keyboards, the Wade–Giles and the Pinyin of the road signs; Taiwan Sign Language; the Development of National Languages Act (2018) |
| Religion | Buddhism about 35% and Taoism about 33% (the folk religion of the temples that mixes them — Mazu the sea goddess of the Dajia pilgrimage, Guan Gong, the Earth God, the ancestors' tablets; the Buddhist orders of Fo Guang Shan, Tzu Chi (the charity of Cheng Yen, 1966), Dharma Drum and Chung Tai), Christianity about 4% (the Presbyterians of 1865 among the indigenous, the Catholics), Yiguandao about 3%, Islam about 0.3% (the Indonesian workers), the Falun Gong free, none about 19% — the Pew and the government's counts of 2020; the freedom of religion complete since 1987; the ghost month, the Lantern Festival of Pingxi, the Yanshui fireworks, the Burning of the Wang Ye boats of Donggang; the 15,000 temples, more than the convenience stores |
| Human Development Index | About 0.93 by the DGBAS's own calculation (2023; the UNDP publishes none for Taiwan), which would rank about 20th of the world with Japan and South Korea — the Gini about 34, the income of the top fifth six times the bottom's, the poverty line's 1.5% of households on relief; the wealth of the chip boom and the wages that lag it (the median monthly wage about NT$45,000, the minimum NT$29,500); the house prices of Taipei at about 16 years of income, the young priced out; the pensions of the labor insurance and the civil servants' reform of 2018 |
| Housing and living | A nation of owners — home ownership about 84%, the highest of the rich world, and the prices the complaint of every election (Taipei's price-to-income about 16, New Taipei's 13; the housing justice marches, the luxury tax, the social housing of 2016–26 short of its 200,000), the apartments of the walk-ups and the towers, the illegal rooftop floors, the betel-nut stands, the 7-Eleven and FamilyMart of every corner (the densest convenience stores of the world), the scooters of 14 million and the YouBikes, the night markets, the hot springs of Beitou and Jiaoxi, the karaoke, the garbage trucks' Beethoven, the recycling of 55%, the water of the taps boiled, the National Health Insurance's NT$150 visits; the NT$10,000 handed to every citizen in November 2025 by the opposition's law; the electricity of the AI boom and the nuclear question on the ballot of 28 November 2026; the typhoon days; the fertility subsidies; the earthquake apps |
| Learning and letters | The Academia Sinica (1928; moved 1949), the National Taiwan University, the science parks of Hsinchu (1980), Taichung and Tainan; the Nobel of Yuan T. Lee (1986); the film — Hou Hsiao-hsien ("A City of Sadness," 1989, the Venice Golden Lion), Edward Yang ("Yi Yi," 2000), Ang Lee of Pingtung (the Oscars of 2006 and 2013), Tsai Ming-liang; the Golden Horse Awards (1962); the writers — Bai Xianyong, Chen Ying-zhen, Li Ang, Wu Ming-yi ("The Man with the Compound Eyes"), Yang Shuang-zi's "Taiwan Travelogue" (the International Booker Prize of 19 May 2026 with Lin King, the first from Mandarin), Sanmao, Chiung Yao, the poet Yu Kwang-chung; the music — Teresa Teng (1953–95), Jay Chou, A-mei of the Puyuma, Mayday, the Golden Melody Awards; the Cloud Gate dance of Lin Hwai-min (1973); the puppet theater of the Pili and the glove puppets; the National Palace Museum (1965 at Waishuangxi; the Jadeite Cabbage) and its southern branch of Chiayi (2015); the Taipei Book Fair; the manga and the games; Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" shot at Taichung |
| Sport | Baseball — the Premier12 world title of 23 November 2024 (Japan beaten 4–0 at Tokyo; Lin Yu-min's pitching, Chen Chieh-hsien's home run), the World Baseball Classic of March 2026 (out in Pool C at Tokyo on the tiebreak after beating Czechia 14–0 and South Korea 5–4 and losing to Australia and Japan), the CPBL's six teams and the Taipei Dome, the Little League dynasty of 1969–96 (17 Williamsport titles), Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees, Lin Yu-min of the Diamondbacks; badminton (Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin's doubles golds of Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024, Tai Tzu-ying's silver of 2021, Chou Tien-chen), weightlifting (Kuo Hsing-chun's gold of 2021), boxing (Lin Yu-ting's gold of Paris 2024 and the gender row), table tennis (Lin Yun-ju), taekwondo (Chen Shih-hsin's gold of 2004, the first), archery, golf (Yani Tseng's five majors, Kevin Yu), basketball (the P. League+), cycling (the Giant and Merida bikes of the world's pelotons); the Olympic medals ×7 at Paris 2024 (2 gold, 5 bronze), none at the Winter Games of 2026; THE ASIAN GAMES OF 2026 (Aichi-Nagoya, 19 September – 4 October) — 33 medals by the evening of 28 September (3 gold, 7 silver, 23 bronze), Fu Chao-hsuan's men's high jump gold of 27 September the first men's athletics title in 60 years, Lin Yun-ju's table tennis bronze, the 480 or so athletes by the counts; the Universiade of Taipei 2017, the World Games of Kaohsiung 2009; the Ministry of Sports of Lee Yang (9 September 2025); "Chinese Taipei" the name, the plum-blossom flag and the Flag Anthem |
| Diaspora | About 2 million by the counts — the Taiwanese Americans (about 1 million by descent by the estimates; the Silicon Valley of Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Lisa Su of AMD and Jerry Yang of Yahoo, the New York of Ang Lee's films, Los Angeles's San Gabriel Valley, the Houston and Flushing communities; the Taiwanese-born Steve Chen of YouTube), the Taishang of the mainland (about a million Taiwanese lived and worked in China at the peak of the 2000s — Kunshan, Dongguan, Shanghai — fewer since the pandemic and the politics), Japan (about 60,000), Canada (Vancouver and Toronto), Australia (Brisbane), Southeast Asia (Vietnam's factories, Thailand, Malaysia), Brazil and Paraguay's Ciudad del Este; the overseas Chinese of the KMT's old count (the Overseas Community Affairs Council); the students abroad; the "Taiwan Travelogue" of the emigrant writers; the returnees of the chip boom |
Government
| Form of government | A unitary semi-presidential republic under the Constitution of 1947 and its Additional Articles of 1991–2005 — the President elected by the people (since 1996; four years, twice) as head of state, commander-in-chief and the maker of the China policy, who names the Premier (the President of the Executive Yuan) without the legislature's consent (since 1997); the Executive Yuan's cabinet answerable to the Legislative Yuan of 113 (four years; 73 constituency seats, 34 by party list at a 5% threshold, 6 indigenous), which passes the laws and the budget, may censure the cabinet and be dissolved after a censure; the five powers of Sun Yat-sen — the Judicial Yuan (the Constitutional Court of 15 justices, eight sitting), the Examination Yuan (the civil service) and the Control Yuan (the auditors and the impeachers; its president Chen Chu resigned 28 January 2026) beside the two; the 22 municipalities and counties with elected heads and councils; the referendum by the act of 2003 (the votes of 2018, 2021, 2022 and 23 August 2025); the recall by the act of 1980, eased in 2016 (the 31 votes of 2025 all failed); a democracy since the direct election of 1996 and the first alternation of 2000, ranked among Asia's first by the indices |
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| President | Lai Ching-te (William Lai; born 6 October 1959 at Wanli, New Taipei; the kidney doctor of Tainan, its mayor 2010–17, Premier 2017–19, Vice President 2020–24, the DPP's chair since 18 January 2023) — the President of the Republic of China since 20 May 2024, elected 13 January 2024 with 40.05% of the vote against Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (33.49%) and Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People's Party (26.46%) on a turnout of 71.9%, the first party to a third straight term and the first president since 2000 without a legislative majority; the "17 strategies" against China's infiltration of 13 March 2025 (Beijing a "foreign hostile force"), the "T-Dome" air defense and the 5% of GDP for defense by 2030 of his National Day address of 2025, the recall campaign of 2025 that failed, the trip to Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize of August 2025 shelved when the American transit was refused, the trip to Eswatini of May 2026 with the African overflights refused; Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (born 1971 at Kobe; the envoy to Washington of 2020–23); the Presidential Office's Secretary-General Pan Men-an; the next election January 2028 |
| Prime Minister | Cho Jung-tai, the Premier (the President of the Executive Yuan) since 20 May 2024 — the DPP's former secretary-general and chair (2019–20), the President's appointee, the head of the cabinet of the 14 ministries and the councils; Vice Premier Cheng Li-chun (the culture minister of 2016–20), the Executive Yuan's Secretary-General Xavier Chang (since September 2025; Kung Ming-hsin before him); the premiers of the Tsai years — Lin Chuan, Lai Ching-te, Su Tseng-chang (2019–23), Chen Chien-jen (2023–24); the Premier answers the legislature's interpellations on Tuesdays and Fridays and survives on the President's confidence and the budget's passage |
| Cabinet | The Executive Yuan Council — Cho Jung-tai presiding; Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (the Taichung mayor of 2014–18), National Defense Wellington Koo (the first civilian minister since 2013), the Interior Liu Shyh-fang, Finance Chuang Tsui-yun, Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (since 1 September 2025, for J. W. Kuo), Education Cheng Ying-yao, Justice Cheng Ming-chien, Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai, Labor Hung Sun-han, Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (since September 2025), Culture Li Yuan, Agriculture Chen Junne-jean, Environment Peng Chi-ming, Digital Affairs (the ministry of 2022), Sports Lee Yang (the ministry founded 9 September 2025; the badminton Olympic champion); the councils — the Mainland Affairs Council of Chiu Chui-cheng, the National Development Council of Yeh Chun-hsien (since September 2025), the National Science and Technology Council of Wu Cheng-wen, the Ocean Affairs Council of Kuan Bi-ling (the Taiping Island landing of 23 April 2026), the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the DGBAS of the statistics; the ministers without portfolio (Chen Shih-chung, Shih Che among them); the National Security Council of Joseph Wu under the President; the reshuffle of 16 officials of 1 September 2025 ("AI Action Cabinet 2.0") |
| The last election | 13 January 2024, the presidential and the legislative together (turnout 71.9%) — Lai Ching-te and Hsiao Bi-khim (DPP) 5,586,019 votes, 40.05%; Hou Yu-ih and Jaw Shaw-kong (KMT) 4,671,021, 33.49%; Ko Wen-je and Cynthia Wu (TPP) 3,690,466, 26.46%; the Legislative Yuan of 113 — the Kuomintang 52 (54 with the two independents who caucus with it), the DPP 51, the Taiwan People's Party 8 (all by the party list, 22.07%), the KMT's Han Kuo-yu elected Speaker 1 February 2024 with the TPP standing aside; the party-list vote DPP 36.16%, KMT 34.58%, TPP 22.07%; THE RECALL VOTES OF 2025 — 24 KMT legislators and the Hsinchu mayor on 26 July, seven more on 23 August, every one failed (the turnout above 55% on 26 July, the highest of any recall; seven passed the quarter-of-the-electorate bar but lost the majority) — the DPP's case (the legislators "pro-Beijing" and the legislature's sabotage of the budget and the courts) and the opposition's (a losing party undoing an election) — both stated (LAW 2); the referendum of 23 August 2025 on restarting the Maanshan nuclear plant — 4.34 million yes to 1.51 million no, short of the 5 million threshold, failed; the local elections of 26 November 2022 (the KMT's 13 of 21) the last of their kind |
| Parliament | Unicameral — the Legislative Yuan (Lifa Yuan) of 113 members for four years (the 11th Legislative Yuan of 1 February 2024 – 31 January 2028): 73 by single-member constituencies, 34 by a nationwide party list (5% threshold; half of them women by the rule), 6 by the indigenous voters in two districts; the Speaker (President of the Legislative Yuan) Han Kuo-yu (KMT; the Kaohsiung mayor recalled in 2020, the presidential candidate of 2020) and the Deputy Speaker Johnny Chiang (KMT; the KMT's Taichung candidate of 2026), elected 1 February 2024; the KMT 52, the DPP 51, the TPP 8, the independents 2 — the opposition majority of 62 that cut and froze the budget of 2025 (the NT$207 billion of cuts), passed the amendments of the courts' and the recall's rules, the cash handout of NT$10,000 (2025), the restored holidays, the special defense budget of NT$780 billion of 8 May 2026 (the NT$1.25 trillion asked cut by two-fifths) and the drone budget of NT$240 billion of 27 August 2026; the brawls of the chamber on the world's screens; the sessions of February–May and September–December in the Zhongshan South Road building (the Japanese girls' school of 1930), a new building long promised; the DPP caucus of Ker Chien-ming, the KMT's of Fu Kun-chi |
| The politics of the year | The year after the recalls, before the ballot of 28 November — THE LEGISLATURE: the KMT–TPP majority under Cheng Li-wun (the KMT chair since 1 November 2025, the "1992 consensus" and the talks with Beijing her line) and Huang Kuo-chang (the TPP chair; Ko Wen-je sentenced to 17 years for bribery on 26 March 2026), the special defense budget of NT$780 billion (8 May 2026) against the President's NT$1.25 trillion — the drones, the C5ISR, the "T-Dome" and the "non-red" supply chain cut, the U.S. arms of HIMARS, howitzers, Javelins and the future PAC-3s kept — and the drone special budget of NT$240 billion the opposition wrote and the cabinet accepted (27 August 2026), the 2027 budget of NT$1.12 trillion for defense proposed 17 August 2026 (the first past 3% of GDP by the narrow count; the President's 5% by 2030), the Constitutional Court's ruling of 19 December 2025 against the amendments of 2024 by the reports and the eight justices' bench (the LY's refusals of the nominees), the holidays restored, the nuclear referendum set beside the local elections by the Central Election Commission; THE STRAIT: Justice Mission-2025 of 29–30 December 2025 (130 aircraft, 14 warships, 27 rockets into the seas after Japan's Takaichi and the U.S. arms sale of US$11 billion), the drills' pause and the daily flights (125 ADIZ entries in August 2026, half the year before's), the 244 Chinese vessels of July 2026 in Taiwan's waters (eightfold), the coast guard's four Kinmen incursions a month, the spies' trials (the journalist of 17 January, the officers, the mainland-spouse advocate's seven years of 11 August 2026), the mainland-born spouses' deportations of 2025, the "17 strategies"; WASHINGTON: the Agreement on Trade and Investment of 15 January 2026 (the 15% cap; US$250 billion of chip, energy and AI investment and US$250 billion of credit guarantees; Section 232 relief for the fabs built in America; the tariffs on 99% of U.S. goods cut by Taiwan, 12 February), the Supreme Court's ruling of 20 February against the IEEPA duties, the 10% of Section 122 and the 10% of Section 301 of 24 July 2026 on the "forced labor" finding Taipei rejects, the missiles of the Luzon Strait and the Ryukyus of 1 July 2026, the Iran war's LNG scare of March (the Gulf's 38% of the gas, 11 days of reserves, the American and Australian cargoes from May); THE ELECTION: the 22 races of 28 November (Taipei's Chiang Wan-an against Puma Shen neck and neck by the polls of September; New Taipei's Lee Shu-chuan against Su Chiao-hui; Taichung's Johnny Chiang against Ho Hsin-chun; Kaohsiung's Ko Chih-en against Lai Jui-lung; Tainan's Hsieh Lung-chieh against Chen Ting-fei; Taoyuan's Chang San-cheng against Huang Shih-chieh), the KMT's 14 and the DPP's 5 to defend; THE ECONOMY: the AI boom's 11.05% and the wages' 4.7%, the NT dollar's swings, the cash handout spent; the government's case (the island defended, the chips its shield, the sanctions on the spies) and the opposition's (a president who lost the recalls and the majority must govern with them, the strait needs talks, the budget needs a check) — both stated (LAW 2) |
| Next elections | The local elections of 28 November 2026 — the 22 mayors and magistrates, the 22 councils, the 368 township heads and councils, the village and borough chiefs — with the referendum on repealing the "nuclear-free homeland" clause beside them (the Central Election Commission's decision of August 2026); the presidential and legislative elections of January 2028 (the 12th Legislative Yuan from 1 February 2028; the President's term to 20 May 2028); the KMT's and the DPP's primaries of 2027; the referendums of the fourth Saturday of August in the odd years by the act |
| Parties | The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP; 28 September 1986, the first opposition party of the martial-law years; chair Lai Ching-te; the "pan-green" of Taiwan's identity; 51 seats), the Kuomintang (KMT; 1894/1919, Sun Yat-sen's and Chiang Kai-shek's, the ruling party of 1928–2000 and 2008–16; chair Cheng Li-wun since 1 November 2025, elected 18 October over Hau Lung-pin; Eric Chu before; the "pan-blue" of the 1992 consensus; 52 seats and 14 of the 22 local seats), the Taiwan People's Party (TPP; 2019, Ko Wen-je's; chair Huang Kuo-chang since 1 January 2025; Ko's 17 years of 26 March 2026; 8 seats), the New Power Party (2015; none), the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, the Green Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union of Lee Teng-hui (2001), the New Party (1993), the People First Party of James Soong (2000), the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union; the independents Kao Chin Su-mei (raided 10 February 2026) and Chen Chao-ming; the Communist Party of the mainland banned in all but name; the parties' funding by the act of 2017 and the ill-gotten assets committee's pursuit of the KMT's |
| Legal system | Civil law of the German and Japanese lines — the Six Codes of the Republic (the Civil Code of 1929–31, the Criminal Code of 1935, the codes of procedure), the Constitution of 1947 and the Additional Articles, the Constitutional Court of the Judicial Yuan (15 justices; eight sitting by the reports, the nominees refused by the legislature in 2024–25, the amendments of 2024 struck down 19 December 2025), the Supreme Court, the high and district courts, the Supreme Administrative Court, the citizen judges of the trials since 2023; the death penalty kept — the Constitutional Court's ruling of 20 September 2024 upheld it for the gravest murders with limits, the execution of Huang Lin-kai on 16 January 2025 the first since 2020; the same-sex marriage of 24 May 2019, Asia's first, by the Court's ruling of 2017; the Anti-Infiltration Act (2019), the National Security Act's espionage cases (the officers of 2025–26, the mainland-spouse advocate's seven years of 11 August 2026), the Referendum Act (2003), the Recall Act (1994; the 2025 votes), the Transitional Justice Commission (2018–22) on the White Terror; the Ko Wen-je verdict of 26 March 2026 (17 years; the Core Pacific City case), the Tokyo Electron trade-secrets verdict of 27 April 2026, the Prince Group scam indictments of 4 March 2026; the Control Yuan's impeachments; the National Human Rights Commission (2020) |
| Defense | The Republic of China Armed Forces — about 180,000 in the active forces by the counts (the target 215,000; the shortfall of the empty cradles), the reserves of about 1.6 million on the books, the conscription of one year since 1 January 2024 (from four months; the classes born from 2005), the all-volunteer core; the Army's Abrams M1A2Ts (108 by 2026), HIMARS (the first 11 of 29 in 2024), the Navy's Hai Kun submarine (launched 28 September 2023; the sea trials of 2025–26 and the delays; the two Hai Lung boats given Mk-48 torpedoes and Harpoons in 2026), the Air Force's F-16Vs (the 66 new Block 70s delayed; the F-16V lost off Hualien 6 January 2026), the Patriots and the Sky Bows, the drones of the NT$240 billion budget of 27 August 2026; the budget NT$949.5 billion for 2026 (3.32% of GDP by the government's NATO-style count) and NT$1.12 trillion proposed for 2027 (17 August 2026), the special budget of NT$780 billion of 8 May 2026 for 2026–33 (NT$300 billion for the U.S. arms bought, NT$480 billion for the PAC-3 MSEs and NASAMS to come), the President's 5% of GDP by 2030 and the "T-Dome"; Minister Wellington Koo, the Chief of the General Staff Mei Chia-shu; the Han Kuang exercise of July (ten days and the civil defense of 2025; the live-fire artillery of 27 August 2026 with the drones' targeting); the U.S. arms sale of US$11.1 billion of December 2025, the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 and the "strategic ambiguity," the American trainers on the island by the reports; the PLA's Justice Mission-2025 (29–30 December 2025), Strait Thunder-2025A (April 2025) and Joint Sword (2024), the 244 vessels of July 2026; the civil defense handbook of 2025, the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee (2024) |
| Foreign policy | Twelve diplomatic allies — Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Americas, Eswatini in Africa, the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu in the Pacific, and the Holy See (Nauru lost 15 January 2024; the count 22 in 2016) — and the unofficial ties with the rest: the United States (the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the American Institute in Taiwan, the arms sales, the Agreement on Trade and Investment of 15 January 2026, the tariffs of 20% (August 2025), 15% (the agreement) and 10% (Section 301, 24 July 2026), the transit refused in August 2025), Japan (the Takaichi remarks of November 2025 on a Taiwan contingency and Beijing's fury; the Yonaguni radar), the European Parliament's and the Czechs' and Lithuanians' friendships (the Taiwanese Representative Office of Vilnius, 2021), the Southbound policy of the Tsai years (ASEAN, India — the Foxconn and Tata chips), the Pacific allies' aid, the "steadfast diplomacy"; the mainland — no talks since 2016 (Beijing's "1992 consensus" condition), the KMT's chair Cheng Li-wun the channel Beijing courts, the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Mainland Affairs Council, the "22 guidelines" of June 2024 against "diehard separatists," the Chinese ban on the pineapples, the groupers and the mangoes of 2021–23, the tourists' ban; Papua New Guinea's closing of the Taipei office at Port Moresby (16 July 2026), the Pretoria office's forced move (2025) by the reports, the Eswatini trip of May 2026 with the overflights refused; the WHO's assembly door shut since 2017, the ICAO's, Interpol's; the Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung since May 2024 |
| United Nations | Not a member since 25 October 1971, when Resolution 2758 seated the People's Republic of China as "the only legitimate representative of China" and "expelled the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" — the Republic of China a founding member of 1945 and a permanent member of the Security Council to that day; the bids for a seat of 1993–2008 refused, the campaigns for "meaningful participation" since; the argument over 2758 (Beijing: it settled Taiwan's status; Taipei, Washington and the European Parliament: it never mentioned Taiwan) both stated (LAW 2); outside the WHO (the observer seat of 2009–16 as Chinese Taipei), UNESCO, the ICAO, Interpol and the climate conventions, in the WTO (2002), APEC, the ADB and the Olympic movement as Chinese Taipei; the UN's specialized agencies' data with "Taiwan, Province of China"; the human-rights covenants ratified into domestic law by Taiwan itself (2009) |
| Other memberships | The World Trade Organization (1 January 2002, as the "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu"), APEC (1991, as Chinese Taipei; the leaders' summits by an envoy), the Asian Development Bank (a founder, 1966; "Taipei, China"), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (1992), the WOAH (the animal-health body; a member since 1954), the International Olympic Committee's Chinese Taipei (the Nagoya resolution of 1981), FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, the Global Cooperation and Training Framework with the U.S. and Japan (2015), the CPTPP application of 22 September 2021 pending, the WHO observer 2009–16, the Egmont Group; not the UN, the IMF, the World Bank (the seat lost 1980), Interpol, the ICAO or the Paris Agreement's parties; the free-trade agreements with New Zealand and Singapore (2013) and the allies, the U.S. agreement of 2026 and the 21st Century Trade initiative (2023) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$920 billion (2025) and US$976.7 billion projected for 2026 by the IMF's World Economic Outlook of April 2026 — the 21st or 22nd economy of the world by the counts (NT$28 trillion at home by the DGBAS's count of 2025), the AI boom of the chips lifting it past Sweden's and Belgium's and toward Switzerland's; TSMC alone about an eighth of it by the counts; the merchandise exports of US$903.6 billion forecast for 2026 by the DGBAS (+41.19%) nearly the size of the economy; US$756 billion in 2023, US$444 billion in 2010 |
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| GDP per capita | About US$39,500 (2025) and US$42,103 projected for 2026 by the IMF — past Japan's and South Korea's since 2022 by the IMF's count and about 30th of the world; the median wage far below the mean (about NT$45,000 a month, the mean about NT$60,000 by the DGBAS's counts of 2025), the chip engineers' bonuses and the service workers' NT$30,000 the two Taiwans |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$97,000 (2026; the IMF's PPP economy about US$2.27 trillion, the 20th of the world) — among the ten highest of the world by purchasing power by the counts, well above Germany's, Japan's and South Korea's; the cheap food, rent outside Taipei and the NT$150 doctor's visit the reasons the prices lie low |
| GDP growth | 8.68% in 2025 by the DGBAS's preliminary count (8.7% by the IMF's) after the 4.8% of 2024 — and 11.05% forecast for 2026 by the DGBAS on 14 August 2026, the highest in 39 years (the first half +14.15%; the second quarter +12.93%; the fourth quarter of 2025 +12.65% and 23.55% annualized), 11.5% by the Central Bank's count of 17 September, 5.2% by the IMF's of April — all stated; 6.04% for 2027 by the DGBAS; the AI servers and the advanced chips of Nvidia's, Apple's and the hyperscalers' orders the engine (the exports to the United States leaping), the private consumption at 2.5%, the investment in the fabs; the risks the tariffs of Washington, the Iran war's energy, the strong NT dollar of 2025, the strait and the water |
| Economy by sector | Services about 60% of GDP (the trade, the finance, the state, the health care, the tourism, the logistics), industry about 38% — the semiconductors first: TSMC (1987; Morris Chang's foundry, the world's largest chipmaker, about 70% of the foundry market and about 90% of the most advanced chips by the counts; the 2-nanometer of Hsinchu and Kaohsiung of 2025, the Arizona fabs of the US$165 billion plan; the revenue of about NT$3.8 trillion in 2025, about US$120 billion, and a third more in 2026 by its guidance), MediaTek (the phone chips), UMC, ASE (the packaging), the servers of Foxconn (Hon Hai; the world's largest contract manufacturer, the iPhone and the AI racks), Quanta, Wistron, Inventec, Pegatron and Compal, the panels of AUO, the components of Delta, the bikes of Giant and Merida, the machine tools of Taichung, the petrochemicals of Formosa Plastics (the Mailiao complex), the steel of China Steel, the shipbuilding of CSBC (the submarine), the textiles that dress the world's athletes (the functional fabrics), the shoes' factories moved to Vietnam; agriculture about 1.5% — the rice, the fruit, the pork, the fish; the Taiex of the TWSE above 20,000 since 2024 with TSMC a third of it; the state's Taipower, CPC, the Post and the banks |
| Currency and prices | The NT dollar at about 31.8 to the U.S. dollar (28 September 2026) — the surge to about 29 in May 2025 that cost the exporters and the life insurers their year, the 33 of 2024, the managed float of the Central Bank (the intervention against the volatility, the U.S. Treasury's monitoring list; the bank's statement that Washington asked for no appreciation); inflation 1.66% in 2025 by the CPI and forecast at 2.07% for 2026 by the DGBAS (2.0% by the Central Bank; the energy of the Iran war and the services; 1.8% for 2027) — the low-inflation island of the NT$60 lunch box; the policy rate 2.0% since 21 March 2024 (the surprise rise), held for the tenth meeting on 17 September 2026, a rise possible in 2027 by the bank's words; the foreign reserves of about US$600 billion, the world's fourth or fifth; the mortgage curbs of the seventh round (September 2024) against the house prices; the electricity prices raised for the factories (2024–25) and the AI's power hunger; the 7-Eleven prices, the NT$10,000 handout of November 2025 |
| Tourism | About 8.5 million visitors in 2025 by the Tourism Administration's counts (11.9 million in 2019, the peak, before the pandemic and the Chinese ban; the target of 10 million missed), the Japanese, the Koreans, the Hong Kongers, the Southeast Asians of the visa waivers, the Americans and the Europeans, the mainland's group tourists banned by Beijing since 2019 — Taipei 101 and the Palace Museum, the night markets, Jiufen's lanterns (the "Spirited Away" town), Sun Moon Lake, Alishan's sunrise, Taroko (closed in part), Kenting's beaches, Tainan's temples, Kaohsiung's Pier-2, the hot springs, the Pingxi lanterns, the Yehliu rocks, the Taiwan Lantern Festival, the bubble tea and the beef noodles, the Kavalan distillery; the Taiwanese abroad 17 million trips a year (Japan the first); the cruise port of Keelung; the Ministry of Transportation's Tourism Administration |
| Chips, industry and energy | The chips — TSMC's fabs of Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung (the 3-nm and the 2-nm nodes, the CoWoS packaging of the AI accelerators), the Arizona, Kumamoto and Dresden fabs of the diaspora, the US$250 billion of investment pledged in the agreement of 15 January 2026 (TSMC's US$165 billion in Arizona the core) with US$250 billion of Taiwan's credit guarantees, the Section 232 relief for the chips made by the companies building in America (2.5 times the planned capacity duty-free while building), the export controls on the Chinese customers, the trade-secrets verdict of 27 April 2026 against the Tokyo Electron and TSMC staff; the merchandise exports of US$903.6 billion forecast for 2026 (+41%) — the chips and the servers about two-thirds; the machine tools, the petrochemicals, the steel, the bicycles, the textiles, the optics (Largan), the drones of the NT$240 billion push (the "non-red" supply chain); the energy — the LNG of about half the electricity (the Gulf's 38% of the gas, Qatar a third; the reserves of 11 days that the Iran war of March 2026 tested, the American and Australian cargoes of May–June), the coal of about 30%, the renewables of about 13% (the offshore wind of Changhua, the solar of the fishponds), nuclear zero since 17 May 2025 (Maanshan 2 shut; the six reactors of 1978–2025), the referendum of 23 August 2025 on the restart short of its threshold and the referendum of 28 November 2026 on the "nuclear-free homeland"; Taipower's losses and the prices; the water of the fabs; the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Kung Ming-hsin |
| Agriculture and fisheries | About 1.5% of GDP and 4% of the workers — the rice of the western plain (two crops; the Chishang and Chihshang of the east the prized), the fruit (the pineapples China banned in March 2021 and Japan bought, the mangoes of Yujing, the wax apples, the lychees, the bananas, the atemoyas and the guavas, the tea of Alishan and Dong Ding, the betel nut of the roadside), the vegetables of Yunlin, the flowers of Changhua (the orchids of the world's trade), the pork (the ractopamine vote of 2021), the poultry, the milk of the few; the aquaculture of the milkfish, the tilapia, the grouper (China's ban of 2022), the eels and the oysters; the fisheries of the Kuroshio — the tuna of Donggang and the distant-water fleet of Kaohsiung (among the world's largest; the migrant crews' rights the issue), the mackerel of Su'ao; the farmland of 790,000 hectares by the counts, the farms of a hectare, the farmers past 60, the Council of Agriculture made a Ministry (2023); the food self-sufficiency about 30% by calories |
| Services and finance | The banks of the state's shadow — Bank of Taiwan, Land Bank, Taiwan Cooperative, First, Hua Nan, Chang Hwa, Mega — and the private of CTBC, Cathay United, Fubon, E.Sun, Taishin, SinoPac; the insurers of Cathay Life and Fubon Life (the NT dollar's surge of May 2025 their wound), the Post Office's savings; the Taiwan Stock Exchange (1962; the Taiex of the world's most-traded chip stocks, TSMC a third of it; the retail traders of 12 million accounts, the ETFs of the dividends), the Taipei Exchange; the Financial Supervisory Commission (2004), the Central Bank; the National Health Insurance's NT$900 billion a year; the telecoms of Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone (the 5G of 2020), the convenience stores of 7-Eleven (Uni-President) and FamilyMart, the department stores of Shin Kong and Sogo, the e-commerce of momo and Shopee, the Eslite bookstores, the Evergreen and Yang Ming shipping lines (the Ever Given of 2021), EVA Air and China Airlines; the remittances out to the migrant workers' homes; the pensions' reform |
| Trade | Exports about US$640 billion of merchandise in 2025 by the Ministry of Finance's count (+35% on 2024) and US$903.6 billion forecast for 2026 by the DGBAS (+41.19%) — the semiconductors and the electronics about two-thirds (the AI servers of the year), the machinery, the petrochemicals and plastics, the metals, the optics, the bicycles, the textiles; the United States the largest buyer since 2025 (about 30% by the counts; the servers and the chips), China and Hong Kong (about 27%; down from 44% in 2020), ASEAN (about 17%), Japan, Europe, South Korea; imports about US$450 billion in 2025 (the chipmaking equipment of ASML and Applied Materials, the energy of the LNG and the crude, the parts, the food) — from China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, the Gulf; the surplus of about US$190 billion in 2025 and the surplus with the United States of about US$100 billion that drew the tariffs (32% announced 2 April 2025, 20% from 7 August 2025, 15% by the Agreement on Trade and Investment of 15 January 2026, the IEEPA duties struck down 20 February 2026, 10% under Section 122 and 10% under Section 301 from 24 July 2026 on the "forced labor" finding Taipei rejects; the Section 232 chips and the exemptions); Taiwan's cuts on 99% of the U.S. goods (12 February 2026); the WTO of 2002, the ECFA of 2010 with the mainland (its early-harvest cuts suspended by Beijing in part, 2024), the CPTPP bid; the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung, the airport's cargo of the chips |
| Energy | Imports for 97% of the energy — the LNG of Qatar, Australia and the United States (about half the electricity; the terminals of Yung An, Taichung and the Datan of the algal reef vote of 2021; the 11 days of reserves the Iran war of March 2026 laid bare, the cargoes rerouted, the Saudi oil by the Red Sea), the coal of Australia and Indonesia (about 30%; the Taichung plant among the world's largest), the crude of the Gulf (70% by the count) for the CPC and Formosa refineries, the renewables about 13% (the offshore wind of the strait — Formosa 1 and 2, the Greater Changhua of Ørsted, the target of 20 GW; the solar on the fishponds and the roofs), the hydropower of the Sun Moon Lake and the Central Range, the nuclear phased out — Jinshan (2018–19), Kuosheng (2021–23) and Maanshan (Unit 2 on 17 May 2025) shut, the referendum of 23 August 2025 to restart Maanshan short of its 5 million threshold (4.34 million yes), the referendum of 28 November 2026 on the "nuclear-free homeland" clause; Taipower's grid of the AI fabs' hunger (the 2 GW of the new data centers), the blackouts of 2021 and 2022, the prices raised; the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Energy Administration |
| Labor and wages | A labor force of about 11.9 million, the participation about 59%, unemployment about 3.3% by the DGBAS's counts of 2026 (the youth about 11%), the migrant workers about 830,000 (the factories, the fishing boats and the care homes; Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand; the caregivers excluded from the minimum wage); the minimum wage NT$29,500 a month and NT$196 an hour in 2026, raised to NT$30,900 and NT$205 from 1 January 2027 by the decision of 24 September 2026 (+4.745%; the 11th rise in a row, 2.61 million workers); the mean wage about NT$60,000 and the median about NT$45,000 a month by the DGBAS, the chip engineers' bonuses the outliers; the labor pension of 6%, the labor insurance's fund; the 40-hour week and the "one fixed day off" law of 2016; the unions weak, the strikes rare (the EVA cabin crew of 2019); the Ministry of Labor of Hung Sun-han |
| Public finances | The central budget of about NT$3.0 trillion for 2026 (the legislature's cuts and freezes of 2025 the fight; the 2027 budget proposed in August 2026 with the defense at NT$1.12 trillion), the revenue of the AI boom's taxes (the income and business taxes past the estimates), the special budgets beside it (the NT$780 billion for defense of 8 May 2026, the NT$240 billion for the drones of 27 August, the NT$550 billion or so "resilience" package of 2025 with the NT$10,000 handout of the opposition's making, the typhoon relief); the debt about 28% of GDP by the counts (the Public Debt Act's cap of 40.6%), the AA ratings; the taxes about 13% of GDP, low; the National Health Insurance's and the pensions' deficits the long question; the Ministry of Finance of Chuang Tsui-yun; the state's holdings in the banks, Taipower's losses covered |
| Income classification | High income by the World Bank's thresholds (about US$40,000 a head); very high human development by the DGBAS's own count (about 0.93); a developed economy by the IMF's list (the "advanced economies" since 1997); the Tiger of the 1960s–90s; the AA of the agencies; the chip foundry of the world |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airports | Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE; 1979) — about 47 million passengers in 2025 by the counts (the pre-pandemic 48.7 million of 2019 about regained), the hub of China Airlines (1959), EVA Air (1989) and Starlux (2020), the Terminal 3 north concourse opened at the end of 2025 with the rest to 2027, the airport MRT to Taipei (2017); Taipei Songshan (TSA; the city's, the Tokyo Haneda and Shanghai Hongqiao shuttles), Kaohsiung (KHH), Taichung (RMQ), Tainan, Hualien, Taitung, Kinmen, Penghu's Magong, Matsu's Nangan; Tigerair Taiwan, Mandarin and Uni Air; the cargo of the chips and the servers among the world's busiest; the air force's Hsinchu, Chiayi, Tainan and Hualien bases (the F-16V lost off Hualien on 6 January 2026) |
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| Ports | Kaohsiung (the 15th to 17th busiest container port of the world by the counts, about 9 million TEUs; the Evergreen and Yang Ming terminals, the naval base of Zuoying beside it), Keelung (the north's; the cruise port), Taichung (the industrial), Taipei Port at Bali (the cars and the containers, 2009), Hualien (the marble and the gravel), Anping of Tainan (the old Dutch harbor), Su'ao, Magong of Penghu; the Taiwan International Ports Corporation (2012); the merchant fleet of Evergreen (the world's seventh container line), Yang Ming and Wan Hai; the ferries to Penghu, Kinmen (and the Xiamen "mini three links" of 2001, shut 2020 and reopened 2023), Matsu, Green Island and Orchid Island; the Chinese vessels of July 2026 (244 in Taiwan's waters, the coast guard's count) |
| Railways | The Taiwan High Speed Rail (2007; 350 km from Nangang to Zuoying in about 95 minutes at 300 km/h, 12 stations, the Japanese Shinkansen trains, about 80 million passengers a year; the extensions to Yilan and Pingtung in planning) and the Taiwan Railway Corporation (1887's Qing line, the Japanese round-island network; 1,065 km, the corporation since 1 January 2024 after the crashes of 2018 (Puyuma, 18 dead) and 2021 (Taroko, 49 dead); the Puyuma and Taroko tilting trains of the east, the EMU3000s, the round-island loop of the Hualien–Taitung and the South-Link lines), the Alishan Forest Railway (1912; 71 km of narrow gauge to 2,216 m, restored end to end in 2024), the Pingxi, Neiwan and Jiji branch lines of the tourists, the Taipei and Kaohsiung undergrounding of the main line; the freight small |
| Roads | About 43,000 km — National Freeway 1 (1978; the Sun Yat-sen Freeway of Keelung–Kaohsiung, 373 km), Freeway 3 (2004; the second north–south), Freeway 5 to Yilan by the Hsuehshan Tunnel (12.9 km; 2006, the second-longest road tunnel of Asia at its opening), the Freeway 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 spurs, the Provincial Highway 9 of the Suhua cliffs (the Suhua Improvement of 2020), the Central Cross-Island Highway (1960; cut by the 921 quake), the Southern Cross-Island, the Hehuanshan road at 3,275 m; the ETC tolls by distance since 2013; about 8.5 million cars and 14 million scooters (the densest scooter fleet of the world; the electric Gogoros and the swapping stations), the right-hand traffic since 1946; the Kuo-Kuang and the intercity buses; the road deaths about 3,000 a year, the "pedestrian hell" of the crossings the reform of 2023 |
| City transport | The Taipei Metro (28 March 1996; six lines of 131 stations, about 2 million riders a day, the Wenhu, Tamsui-Xinyi, Songshan-Xindian, Zhonghe-Xinlu, Bannan and Circular lines with the Wanda line building; the EasyCard of 1 April 2002 for everything), the Kaohsiung Metro (2008; the Red and Orange lines, the Formosa Boulevard dome, the Circular light rail of 2024), the Taoyuan Airport MRT (2017), the Taichung Metro (2021; the Green line), the New Taipei light rails of Danhai and Ankeng, the Tainan and Hsinchu plans; the YouBike of 2009 (the world's busiest bike share by the counts), the buses of the cities and the Bus Rapid Transit of Taichung's memory; the taxis yellow, the Uber legal since 2019; the scooters' waiting boxes at every light; the Taipei Main Station's underground city |
| Utilities | Electricity — the Taiwan Power Company (1946; the state's; the grid of 60 GW, the LNG, coal and renewables of the mix, nuclear zero since May 2025, the prices raised 2022–25, the AI data centers' load), the Datan gas plant, the Taichung coal plant, the Changhua wind farms; water — the Taiwan Water Corporation, the reservoirs of Zengwen, Shihmen and Feitsui (Taipei's), the rationing of 2021's drought (the fab trucks), the leaks of 13%; the telecoms of Chunghwa Telecom (the state's 35%), Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone (5G since 2020, the fiber to most homes, the mobile penetration above 120%), the Ministry of Digital Affairs (2022) and the cables the Chinese ships cut (the Matsu cables of 2023, the Penghu cable of January 2025 and the trials after), the Chunghwa Post of 1896's roots; the waste burned in the 24 incinerators and sorted at the trucks' music; the NHI's clinics; the earthquake and missile alerts on every phone; the shelters of the basements and the metro |
| The country | Taipei 101 and the Xinyi towers; the National Palace Museum's Jadeite Cabbage; the Longshan Temple and the Dihua Street of the old town; the Beitou hot springs and Yangmingshan's calla lilies; Jiufen's stairs and the Shifen waterfall's lanterns; Yehliu's Queen's Head; Tamsui's sunset and Fort San Domingo; Sun Moon Lake's Ci'en Pagoda; Alishan's sunrise train and the cypress giants; the Taroko Gorge and the Qingshui cliffs; Hualien's Qixingtan and the whale boats; Taitung's Brown Boulevard rice roads and Orchid Island; Kenting's Eluanbi lighthouse and the coral; Tainan's Chihkan Tower, Anping Fort and the Confucius Temple of 1665; Kaohsiung's Pier-2, the Love River and the Fo Guang Shan Buddha; Lukang's old streets; the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage; Penghu's basalt and the twin-hearts stone weir; Kinmen's Juguang Tower and the tunnels; Matsu's blue tears; the night markets of Shilin, Raohe, Fengjia and Liuhe; the Pingxi lanterns and the Yanshui fireworks; the Wushantou of Hatta; the Hsinchu fabs at night |
History in dates
| c. 30,000 BC – 1500 | The Zuozhen and Changbin cave people of the ice age (the land bridge to the mainland); the Dapenkeng culture of the Austronesian settlers (c. 4000 BC; the homeland of the Austronesian languages from Madagascar to Hawaii by the linguists), the Beinan of Taitung (1500 BC; the slate coffins), the Shisanhang ironworkers; the peoples of the plains (the Siraya, the Ketagalan) and the mountains (the Atayal, the Paiwan, the Bunun); the Chinese fishermen and the Japanese pirates of the coasts, the Ming's neglect; Penghu under the Yuan (1281) and the Ming |
|---|---|
| 1544 – 1662 | "Ilha Formosa" of the Portuguese sailors (1544); the Dutch East India Company's Fort Zeelandia at Tayouan (1624) and Fort Provintia (1653), the sugar and the deer skins, the Chinese settlers brought from Fujian, the missionaries' romanized Siraya; the Spanish at Keelung and Tamsui (1626–42; Fort San Domingo); Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), the Ming loyalist, besieges and takes Zeelandia (1 February 1662) — the Kingdom of Tungning of the Zhengs at Tainan (1662–83) |
| 1683 – 1858 | The Qing admiral Shi Lang takes the island (1683) — Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian (1684), the settlers' tide from Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and the Hakka hills despite the bans, the rice and the sugar, the feuds of the clans and the "three years a small rising, five a big one" (Zhu Yigui 1721, Lin Shuangwen 1786–88), the plains peoples assimilated and the mountains walled off; the Treaty of Tianjin opens Tamsui and Anping (1858), the tea, the camphor and the missionaries (Mackay of Tamsui, 1872); the Mudan incident and Japan's expedition of 1874; the Sino-French War's blockade (1884–85) |
| 1885 – 1895 | Taiwan Province of the Qing (1887; Liu Mingchuan the first governor, the railway of 1891, the telegraph, the capital at Taipei); the Sino-Japanese War and the Treaty of Shimonoseki (17 April 1895) cede Taiwan and Penghu to Japan "in perpetuity"; the Republic of Formosa proclaimed (25 May 1895; Tang Jingsong) and crushed by October, the resistance of the Hakka and the villages, about 14,000 dead |
| 1895 – 1930 | Japanese Taiwan — Governor-General Kodama Gentaro and Goto Shinpei's colonial state (1898–1906), the railways of the west (1908), the ports, the sugar mills, the opium and camphor monopolies, the Alishan railway (1912), the Tapani uprising (1915) and the end of the armed resistance, the Taiwanese Cultural Association (1921) and the petitions for a parliament (1921–34), the Taihoku Imperial University (1928), the Wushantou dam and the Chianan canals of Hatta Yoichi (1930), the Wushe rebellion of the Seediq (27 October 1930; Mona Rudao; the gas and the reprisals) |
| 1931 – 1945 | The war years — the kominka Japanization (the Japanese names, the shrines, the ban on Chinese in the press, 1937–45), the Kaohsiung naval base and the industry of the south, the 200,000 Taiwanese in Japan's armies (the 30,000 dead; the comfort women), the American bombing of Taihoku (31 May 1945) and the island's ports; Japan's surrender (15 August 1945) and the Republic of China's takeover (25 October 1945; Chen Yi's ceremony at Taipei), the Cairo Declaration of 1943 and the Potsdam terms the ROC's title, the San Francisco treaty's silence the doubters' |
| 28 February 1947 | The 228 Incident — the beating of a cigarette seller in Taipei the spark, the island's rising against Chen Yi's corrupt rule, the Nationalist troops from the mainland and the massacre of the weeks after (18,000 to 28,000 dead by the government's later estimate; the island's elite killed), the wound of the "mainlanders" and the "islanders" for 40 years, Peace Memorial Day since 1995 and Lee Teng-hui's apology; the White Terror to come |
| 1949 – 1950 | The Nationalists lose the civil war — the martial law of 19 May 1949 (to 15 July 1987, the longest of the world then), the New Taiwan dollar (15 June 1949), the Battle of Guningtou on Kinmen (25–27 October 1949; the Communist landing beaten), the government to Taipei (7 December 1949), Chiang Kai-shek's "resumption" of the presidency (1 March 1950), the 1.2 million who came; the Korean War (25 June 1950) and Truman's Seventh Fleet in the strait; the land reform (1949–53; the "37.5% rent" and the land to the tiller); the White Terror's 140,000 tried and 3,000 to 4,000 executed by the estimates |
| 1954 – 1960 | The First Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954–55; the Yijiangshan lost, the Dachens evacuated) and the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States (2 December 1954); the Second Crisis and the shelling of Kinmen (23 August 1958; 470,000 shells in 44 days, the odd-day shelling to 1979); the American aid of US$1.5 billion (1951–65) and the land reform's harvest; the Free China journal and Lei Chen jailed (1960); Chiang's third term by the Temporary Provisions (1960) |
| 1961 – 1971 | The "Taiwan miracle" begins — the export zone of Kaohsiung (1966; the first of Asia), the 10% growth of the decade, the textiles and the transistor radios, the nine-year schooling (1968); Peng Ming-min's manifesto (1964) and his flight (1970); the Cultural Renaissance against the mainland's Cultural Revolution (1966); the loss of the UN seat by Resolution 2758 (25 October 1971) and the walkout, the Diaoyutai protests |
| 1972 – 1979 | Nixon in Beijing (February 1972) and Japan's switch (September 1972); Chiang Kai-shek dies (5 April 1975), Yen Chia-kan the president, Chiang Ching-kuo the premier and then the president (1978) of the Ten Major Construction Projects (the freeway, the Taoyuan airport, the steel, the shipyard, the nuclear plants); the Zhongli incident (1977); the United States switches recognition to Beijing (1 January 1979) and passes the Taiwan Relations Act (10 April 1979); the Kaohsiung (Formosa) Incident of 10 December 1979 and the trials of the "tangwai" (Annette Lu, Shih Ming-teh, Chen Chu, the lawyers Chen Shui-bian and Frank Hsieh) |
| 1980 – 1988 | The Hsinchu Science Park (15 December 1980), Morris Chang's TSMC (21 February 1987), the Lin family murders (1980) and Henry Liu's (1984); the Democratic Progressive Party founded in defiance (28 September 1986) and tolerated, martial law lifted (15 July 1987), the mainland visits allowed (November 1987); Chiang Ching-kuo dies (13 January 1988) and Lee Teng-hui, the Taiwanese vice president, succeeds — the "quiet revolution" begins; the Chinese Professional Baseball League (1989/90) |
| 1989 – 1992 | The first multi-party election (December 1989); the Wild Lily student movement (March 1990) and Lee's National Affairs Conference; the Temporary Provisions repealed (1 May 1991) and the "ten-thousand-year" legislature of 1947 retired (December 1991); the first full election of the Legislative Yuan (19 December 1992); the "1992 consensus" of the Hong Kong talks (in the KMT's telling; the DPP denies it exists); the Straits Exchange Foundation (1991) |
| 1993 – 1996 | The Koo–Wang talks of Singapore (April 1993); the Qiandao Lake killings (1994) and Lee's "sorrow of being Taiwanese"; Lee's Cornell speech (June 1995) and the Third Strait Crisis — the missiles of July 1995 and March 1996 off Keelung and Kaohsiung, the American carriers Nimitz and Independence; the first direct presidential election (23 March 1996; Lee Teng-hui 54% over the DPP's Peng Ming-min); the National Assembly's reforms |
| 1997 – 2000 | The constitutional reform of 1997 (the Premier the President's to name), the Taiwan Province streamlined (1998), the Asian crisis weathered, the 921 Jiji earthquake (21 September 1999; 2,415 dead), Lee's "special state-to-state relations" (July 1999) and the DPP's resolution on Taiwan's future (1999); the election of 18 March 2000 — Chen Shui-bian (DPP) wins with 39% against the split KMT of Lien Chan and James Soong, the first alternation of power, Annette Lu the vice president; Lee expelled from the KMT (2001) |
| 2000 – 2004 | The Chen Shui-bian years — the "four noes" of the inauguration (2000), the fourth nuclear plant halted and restarted (2000–01), the WTO joined (1 January 2002), the SARS of 2003 (73 dead), the Referendum Act (2003), "Taiwan" on the passports (2003), the re-election of 20 March 2004 by 0.2% after the shooting of the eve and the KMT's protests; the "one country on each side" (2002) |
| 2005 – 2008 | The Anti-Secession Law of Beijing (14 March 2005) and Lien Chan's visit to Hu Jintao (April 2005); the National Assembly abolished and the legislature halved to 113 (2005); the corruption cases of the first family and the "Red Shirt" protests of Shih Ming-teh (2006); the Taiwan High Speed Rail opens (5 January 2007); the UN-membership referendum of 22 March 2008 fails the turnout; the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou wins (22 March 2008; 58%) — the direct flights (July 2008), the Chinese tourists, the "diplomatic truce"; Chen jailed (2009; life, cut to 20 years) |
| 2009 – 2012 | Typhoon Morakot (8 August 2009; 673 dead, Xiaolin buried under the mountain); the World Games of Kaohsiung (2009); the ECFA with the mainland (29 June 2010) and the five special municipalities (25 December 2010); the Chinese tourists' flood (the 2.8 million of 2012); Ma re-elected (14 January 2012; 51.6% over Tsai Ing-wen); the Chinese students admitted (2011) |
| 2013 – 2015 | The Hung Chung-chiu death in the army and the White Shirt march (August 2013); the services trade pact and the Sunflower Movement's occupation of the Legislative Yuan (18 March – 10 April 2014); the Kaohsiung gas explosions (31 July 2014; 32 dead); the KMT's rout in the local elections (29 November 2014; Ko Wen-je takes Taipei) and Ma's resignation as chair; the Ma–Xi handshake at Singapore (7 November 2015), the first meeting of the two sides' leaders since 1949; the Taoyuan municipality (2014); the Bali reef and the fishing quarrels |
| 2016 – 2019 | Tsai Ing-wen (DPP) elected (16 January 2016; 56%; the first woman) with the first DPP majority; Beijing cuts the talks and takes seven allies (2016–19; São Tomé, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, the Solomons, Kiribati), the pension reform and the labor law (2017–18), the Hualien earthquake (6 February 2018), the referendums of 24 November 2018 against the DPP, Xi's "one country, two systems" speech (2 January 2019) and Tsai's refusal, the same-sex marriage law (17 May 2019; the weddings of 24 May, Asia's first), the Hong Kong protests' shadow; the DPP's Lai challenges Tsai in the primary and loses (2019) |
| 2020 – 2022 | Tsai re-elected (11 January 2020; 8.17 million votes, 57%); the pandemic — the "Taiwan model" of the closed border and the masks (2020; seven dead in the year), the outbreak of May 2021 and the vaccines' politics, the reopening of October 2022 (about 15,000 dead in all); the Han Kuo-yu recall (6 June 2020); the pineapple ban (2021), the Taroko train crash (2 April 2021; 49 dead), the referendums of 18 December 2021 (the Datan reef, the pork, the nuclear — all the DPP's way); Nancy Pelosi in Taipei (2–3 August 2022) and the PLA's blockade drills of the days after, the missiles over the island; the local elections of 26 November 2022 (the KMT's 13 of 21; Chiang Wan-an takes Taipei) |
| 2023 – 13 January 2024 | The conscription to one year announced (27 December 2022; in force 1 January 2024); the Hai Kun submarine launched (28 September 2023); the Tsai transit and the McCarthy meeting in California (April 2023) and the Joint Sword drills; the KMT–TPP "blue-white" ticket collapses on camera (23 November 2023); the election of 13 January 2024 — Lai Ching-te 40.05%, Hou Yu-ih 33.49%, Ko Wen-je 26.46%; the Legislative Yuan of KMT 52, DPP 51, TPP 8; Nauru switches to Beijing two days later (15 January 2024); Han Kuo-yu the Speaker (1 February) |
| 3 April – 31 December 2024 | The Hualien earthquake (3 April; magnitude 7.4, 18 dead, Taroko closed); Lai inaugurated (20 May) and Joint Sword-2024A the days after (23–24 May), the "Bluebird" protests against the legislature's expansion of its powers (May) and the Constitutional Court's strike-down (25 October); the recall of the legislators' rules and the court's amendments passed by the majority (20 December); Joint Sword-2024B (14 October) after the National Day speech; Ko Wen-je detained (September–December); the Premier12 title at Tokyo (23 November); the Lai transit to Hawaii and Guam (December) and the Chinese naval deployment; the Constitutional Court's death-penalty ruling (20 September) |
| 1 January – 30 June 2025 | The one-year conscripts' first full year; the execution of 16 January (the first since 2020); the legislature cuts the budget (NT$207 billion; January) and the recall campaigns begin (the "Great Recall"); Lai's "17 strategies" against Beijing's infiltration (13 March; China a "foreign hostile force"), the mainland-born influencers deported, the KMT's counter-recalls; Strait Thunder-2025A (1–2 April); the 32% tariff of Trump's "Liberation Day" (2 April) and the talks; the NT dollar's surge (May); Maanshan 2 shut — nuclear zero (17 May); the Han Kuang of ten days (July) with the civil-defense drills |
| 1 July – 31 December 2025 | Typhoon Danas on Chiayi (6–7 July); the recall votes — 24 KMT legislators and the Hsinchu mayor survive (26 July), seven more (23 August), all 31 failed; the referendum on Maanshan's restart short of its threshold (23 August); the 20% U.S. tariff (7 August) and the transit to the allies refused (August); the cabinet reshuffle (1 September; the Ministry of Sports of 9 September); Typhoon Ragasa's barrier-lake flood at Guangfu (23 September; 18 dead); Lai's National Day "T-Dome" (10 October); the KMT elects Cheng Li-wun (18 October; in office 1 November); the NT$10,000 handout (November); Takaichi's remarks (November) and the U.S. arms sale of US$11.1 billion (December); Justice Mission-2025 (29–30 December; 130 aircraft, 27 rockets) |
| 1 January – 30 April 2026 | The F-16V lost off Hualien (6 January); the Agreement on Trade and Investment with the United States (15 January; 15%, US$250 billion, the Section 232 relief) and Taiwan's tariff cuts on 99% of U.S. goods (12 February); Chen Chu resigns the Control Yuan (28 January); Alex Honnold climbs Taipei 101 free solo (25 January); the raid on Kao Chin Su-mei (10 February); the DGBAS's 7.71% (13 February); the Supreme Court of the United States strikes the IEEPA tariffs (20 February) and the 10% of Section 122 follows; the World Baseball Classic (5–8 March; out in Pool C); the Prince Group indictments (4 March); Ko Wen-je's 17 years (26 March); the KMT names Johnny Chiang for Taichung (31 March); Kuan Bi-ling on Taiping Island (23 April); the Tokyo Electron verdict (27 April) |
| 1 May – 31 August 2026 | Lai in Eswatini after the African overflights were refused (2 May); the special defense budget of NT$780 billion passed, two-fifths cut (8 May); the DPP names Puma Shen for Taipei (13 May); "Taiwan Travelogue" wins the International Booker (19 May); the DGBAS's 9.64% (29 May); the Gangshan trainer crash (2 June; two dead); the Hsinchu gas blast (9 June); Typhoon Mekkhala (28 June; six dead); the American missiles of the Luzon Strait (1 July); the cooking-oil recall (1 July); the Zhongli factory fire (9 July); Typhoon Bavi (10–11 July); Papua New Guinea closes the Taipei office (16 July); the Section 301 tariff of 10% (24 July); the mainland-spouse advocate's seven years (11 August); the DGBAS's 11.05%, a 39-year high (14 August); the 2027 defense budget of NT$1.12 trillion proposed (17 August); the drone special budget of NT$240 billion passed (27 August); the nuclear referendum set beside the local elections |
| 1 – 28 September 2026 | The Ministry of the Interior's 23,224,721 and the 32nd month of decline (10 September); the CNA's list of the 22 races (7 September); the Central Bank holds at 2.0% a tenth time and lifts its growth count to 11.5% (17 September); the Asian Games open at Aichi-Nagoya (19 September) — Fu Chao-hsuan's high jump gold (27 September), 33 medals by the 28th; the Taipei polls of Chiang against Shen (22–23 September); the minimum wage of NT$30,900 for 2027 decided (24 September); Teachers' Day a holiday again (28 September); the NT dollar at 31.8; the state as of 28 September 2026 — 61 days to the ballot of 28 November |
| The island | 77 years since the government came to Taipei, 30 since the first direct election, 26 since the first alternation, two since Lai's inauguration — a democracy of 23 million on the world's most contested island, the chip foundry of the AI age with the world's lowest birth rate, its status stated both ways and its people the deciders |
Records & firsts
| The chip foundry | TSMC of Hsinchu (1987), the world's largest semiconductor maker — about 70% of the foundry market and about 90% of the most advanced chips by the counts, the 2-nanometer node of 2025, a revenue of about US$120 billion in 2025 and the most valuable company of Asia; the island makes most of the world's advanced chips and nearly all the AI accelerators' silicon |
|---|---|
| The lowest birth rate | A total fertility rate under 0.8 in 2025 by the Ministry of the Interior's count, the lowest of any country, below South Korea's for the first time; 107,812 births in 2025, the fewest on record; the population falling 32 months in a row by August 2026 |
| Taipei 101 | 508 m, the tallest building of the world from its topping-out of 2004 to the Burj Khalifa of 2010, the first past 500 m; the 660-metric-ton tuned mass damper that sways against the typhoons and the quakes, the fastest elevators of their day (60.6 km/h); Alex Honnold's free solo climb of 25 January 2026 |
| Yushan | 3,952 m, the highest mountain of the western Pacific's islands north of New Guinea and of any island but New Guinea, Borneo and Hawaii's by the counts — higher than Fuji; the 268 peaks above 3,000 m of a country the size of Belgium |
| The first same-sex marriage of Asia | The law of 17 May 2019 and the weddings of 24 May 2019 by the Constitutional Court's order of 2017 — the first of Asia; about 15,000 couples by the counts; the joint adoption of 2023 |
| The 921 earthquake | 21 September 1999, magnitude 7.3 to 7.6 at Jiji in Nantou — 2,415 dead, 11,000 injured, 100,000 homes; the deadliest of the island's modern record, the building codes rewritten; the Hualien quake of 3 April 2024 (magnitude 7.4; 18 dead) the strongest since |
| The National Health Insurance | 1 March 1995 — the single-payer system of 99.9% of the people, the NT$150 clinic visit and the IC card, the premiums of about 5% of wages, the model the world's health economists cite for the cheapest universal care |
| The convenience stores | About 14,000 of 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life and OK — one for every 1,700 people, the densest of the world by the counts; the 15,000 temples that outnumber them |
| The scooters | About 14 million registered — the densest scooter fleet of the world, six for every ten people; the Gogoro battery-swapping network of 2015; the "waiting boxes" at every light |
| The Premier12 | The world title of 23 November 2024 at the Tokyo Dome, Japan beaten 4–0 in the final — the first world championship of Taiwan's baseball, the Little League dynasty of 17 Williamsport titles (1969–96) before it; the Asian Games high jump gold of Fu Chao-hsuan (27 September 2026), the first men's athletics title in 60 years |
| The longest martial law | 19 May 1949 to 15 July 1987 — 38 years and 57 days, the longest of the world when it was lifted; the White Terror's 140,000 tried by the courts martial and 3,000 to 4,000 executed by the estimates; the democracy of 1996 |
| The Austronesian homeland | The languages of 400 million people from Madagascar to Hawaii and Easter Island trace to the Formosan languages of Taiwan's 16 indigenous peoples by the linguists' "out of Taiwan" — the Dapenkeng settlers of c. 4000 BC the ancestors of the sailors of the Pacific |
| The recall | The votes of 26 July and 23 August 2025 against 31 legislators, the largest recall of any democracy's parliament — every one failed; the turnout of 26 July above 55%, the highest of any recall on the island |
| The foreign reserves | About US$600 billion by the Central Bank's counts of 2026, the fourth or fifth largest of the world for a country of 23 million; the trade surplus of about US$190 billion in 2025; the exports of 2026 headed for US$903.6 billion by the DGBAS, nearly the size of the economy |
| The bubble tea | The pearl milk tea of the 1980s (Taichung's Chun Shui Tang of 1987 and Tainan's Hanlin both claim it) drunk in every city of the world; the beef noodle festival of Taipei since 2005; the oolong of the high mountains; the Kavalan whisky of Yilan named the world's best single malt (2015) |
| The Hsuehshan Tunnel | 12.9 km under the Xueshan range on Freeway 5 to Yilan (2006) — the second-longest road tunnel of Asia at its opening and among the ten longest of the world; the Taiwan High Speed Rail's 350 km in about 95 minutes; the Alishan railway's 2,216 m by narrow gauge |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Taiwan?
The Republic of China — Zhonghua Minguo — the state founded at Nanjing on 1 January 1912 after the revolution of 1911, which has governed Taiwan since Japan's surrender in 1945 and nothing but Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu since the Nationalists lost the mainland to Mao's Communists in 1949; "Republic of China (Taiwan)" on the passports since 2003 and in the government's own usage, "Taiwan" in the world's, "Chinese Taipei" at the Olympics and the WHO's door, the "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" at the WTO. The island was Formosa, "the beautiful," to the Portuguese sailors of the 1540s; "Taiwan" comes from Tayouan, the sandbar by Tainan where the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia in 1624, a name of the Siraya people that spread to the whole island. Its status is the argument of the western Pacific and this page states it both ways: Taipei's case, that the Republic of China is a sovereign state with its own constitution, elections, currency, army, courts and passports, never ruled for a day by the People's Republic, which 12 states recognize and the rest deal with in all but name; Beijing's, that there is one China, that Taiwan is a province of it since 1945 and that Resolution 2758 of 1971 seated the People's Republic as China at the United Nations, to be reunified by force if need be. A country of 36,197 km² and 23.2 million people 130 km off the Chinese coast, Taiwan is the world's chip foundry and its 21st or 22nd economy, a democracy since the 1990s, and, on 28 September 2026, a state in an election autumn under President Lai Ching-te with a legislature his opponents hold.
What is the capital of Taiwan?
Taipei — the seat of the Republic of China's government since December 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's state moved from the mainland, and the island's capital since the Qing made it the provincial seat in 1887 and the Japanese their colonial capital (Taihoku) in 1895: the Presidential Office Building of 1919 on Ketagalan Boulevard, the Legislative Yuan, the Executive Yuan, the Judicial Yuan and the Control Yuan all inside the old city's grid, the Central Bank on Roosevelt Road, Taipei 101 (508 m; the tallest building of the world from 2004 to 2010) over the Xinyi district, the National Palace Museum's 698,000 treasures of the Chinese emperors at Waishuangxi, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and Liberty Square, the night markets of Shilin and Raohe, the Tamsui river and the hot springs of Beitou under the volcanoes of Yangmingshan. About 2.4 million people live in the city, but New Taipei City, the ring of towns around it (Banqiao, Zhonghe, Xinzhuang, Sanchong, Tamsui), is the country's largest municipality with about 4 million, and the Taipei–Keelung metropolis holds about 7 million, a third of the country. Taichung (about 2.8 million; the central city of the machine-tool belt) and Kaohsiung (about 2.7 million; the southern port and the heavy industry, the container port among the world's 20 largest) are the other giants; then Taoyuan (about 2.3 million; the airport and the factories), Tainan (about 1.8 million; the oldest city, the Dutch and Koxinga's capital of 1662), Hsinchu (the science park of TSMC since 1980), Keelung (the northern port), Chiayi and Changhua. Since 2010 the six special municipalities (Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung) hold seven in ten of the people; their mayors are elected on 28 November 2026.
How big is Taiwan, and how many people live there?
36,197 km² (13,976 sq mi) for the whole of the territory the government holds — the main island of Taiwan (35,808 km²; 394 km long and 144 km wide at most, the Tropic of Cancer across its middle), the 90 islands of Penghu (the Pescadores) in the strait, Kinmen (Quemoy) 2 km off Xiamen and Matsu off Fuzhou, the two counties of the old Fujian Province, Green Island and Orchid Island off the east coast, the Pratas atoll (Dongsha) and Taiping Island (Itu Aba) in the South China Sea — the 136th of the world's countries by area, a little larger than Belgium or the U.S. state of Maryland, with 1,566 km of coast and no land border, Japan's Yonaguni 110 km to the east and the Chinese coast 130 km across the Taiwan Strait at its narrowest. Two-thirds of the island is mountain: the Central Range runs its length with 268 peaks above 3,000 m and Yushan at 3,952 m, and the people live on the western plain. The Ministry of the Interior counted 23,224,721 residents at the end of August 2026 — down 103,622 in a year and falling for the 32nd month in a row, because 7,492 babies were born that month against 16,470 deaths: the year 2025 saw 107,812 births, the fewest ever, and a total fertility rate below 0.8, the lowest of any country by the counts, below South Korea's for the first time; one in five residents (20.06%) is past 65, which made Taiwan a "super-aged" society in 2025, and the median age is about 45. The population peaked at 23.6 million in 2019; at 642 to the square kilometer it is still among the ten densest countries, and the six special municipalities hold seven in ten of the people. About 600,000 are indigenous Austronesians of the 16 recognized peoples, about 600,000 are "new residents" from Vietnam, Indonesia, China and the Philippines, and about 830,000 migrant workers keep the factories, the ships and the care homes running.
What are the highest and lowest points of Taiwan?
Yushan (Jade Mountain; Niitakayama, "the new high mountain," to the Japanese, who found it taller than Fuji), 3,952 m (12,966 ft), the summit of the Central Range in the Yushan National Park on the border of Nantou, Chiayi and Kaohsiung — the highest point of Taiwan and of the western Pacific's islands north of New Guinea, higher than any peak of Japan or Korea, a trail of 10.9 km from the Tataka saddle that the permit lottery rations; Xueshan (Snow Mountain, 3,886 m) in the Shei-Pa park, Xiuguluan (3,825 m), Nanhu (3,742 m) and the 268 peaks above 3,000 m of a mountain island four times as high as any of Britain's; the Central Range and the Coastal Range with the rift valley of Hualien and Taitung between them, the Alishan of the sunrise and the forest railway, the Taroko Gorge of marble cut by the Liwu river (closed in part since the earthquake of 3 April 2024), Hehuanshan's road pass at 3,275 m, the highest road of the island, and Yangmingshan's volcanoes above Taipei with the Qixingshan at 1,120 m. The lowest point is the sea, along 1,566 km of coast — the mudflats and lagoons of the west from Taoyuan to Tainan and the Kaohsiung harbor, the cliffs of the Qingshui on the east where the mountains drop 1,000 m into the Pacific, the coral of Kenting at the southern tip, the black beaches of Penghu, the Tamsui river mouth; the Yilan plain, the Chianan plain of Tainan and Chiayi and the Pingtung plain the lowlands, the Taipei basin at about 10 m, Sun Moon Lake at 748 m in the hills of Nantou, and the mean elevation of the whole about 1,150 m. The rain of 2,500 mm a year and the typhoons of summer carve the rivers — the Zhuoshui of 186 km, the longest, the Gaoping of the south and the Tamsui of Taipei.
What currency does Taiwan use?
The New Taiwan dollar (ISO code TWD; NT$; the yuan or kuai in speech), of 100 cents that no one uses — issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2000 and before that by the Bank of Taiwan, which introduced it on 15 June 1949 at 40,000 old Taiwan dollars to one to end the hyperinflation of the civil war's end; the notes of NT$100, 200, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 (the 1,000 the workhorse, the 2,000 rare) and the coins of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 dollars, Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek's portraits on the coins and the Mikado pheasant, the Formosan sika and the Yushan on the notes. About 31.8 NT dollars to the U.S. dollar on 28 September 2026 by the market's counts, between the 29 of the surge of May 2025 that shook the exporters and the 33 of 2024, the Central Bank under Governor Yang Chin-long holding the rate at a rate it calls managed and the Americans no longer calling manipulated; the policy rate stands at 2.0% since the rise of March 2024, held for the tenth meeting in a row on 17 September 2026 with inflation forecast at 2.0% for 2026 (the DGBAS's 2.07%; 1.66% in 2025) and 1.8% for 2027, and the bank's growth forecast lifted to 11.5% for the year. The economy those numbers describe is the world's chip foundry in an AI boom — the DGBAS's 11.05% growth of 2026 the highest in 39 years, the first half up 14.15%, the merchandise exports of the year headed for US$903.6 billion — and the NT dollar the currency of TSMC's dividends, the highest minimum wage the island has set (NT$29,500 a month, NT$30,900 from 1 January 2027) and the house prices of Taipei that run to 16 years of income; the clocks keep National Standard Time, UTC+8, with no summer time; Taiwan drives on the right.
Who governs Taiwan?
A president, a premier and a legislature the president's opponents hold: Lai Ching-te (William Lai; born 6 October 1959 at Wanli, the doctor and Tainan mayor of the Democratic Progressive Party) has been President of the Republic since 20 May 2024, elected on 13 January 2024 with 40.05% against the Kuomintang's Hou Yu-ih (33.49%) and the Taiwan People's Party's Ko Wen-je (26.46%), with Hsiao Bi-khim, the former envoy to Washington, as Vice President; the President is head of state and commander-in-chief, names the Premier, chairs the National Security Council and sets the policy on China, and Cho Jung-tai has been Premier, the head of the Executive Yuan's cabinet, since the same day, with Cheng Li-chun his deputy and the ministers Lin Chia-lung (foreign affairs), Wellington Koo (defense), Liu Shyh-fang (interior), Chuang Tsui-yun (finance), Kung Ming-hsin (economic affairs since 1 September 2025) and Chiu Chui-cheng (the Mainland Affairs Council) among them. The Legislative Yuan of 113 seats, elected the same January, has the Kuomintang's 52 and the Taiwan People's Party's 8 against the DPP's 51 and two independents who vote with the KMT, and Han Kuo-yu of the KMT is its Speaker: the opposition has cut and frozen the budgets, rewritten the laws of the Constitutional Court and the recall, and cut the President's NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget to NT$780 billion on 8 May 2026; the DPP's answer, the recall of 31 KMT legislators on 26 July and 23 August 2025, failed at every seat. The Kuomintang chose Cheng Li-wun as its chair on 1 November 2025, Ko Wen-je was sentenced to 17 years for bribery on 26 March 2026 and Huang Kuo-chang leads his party, and the country votes for its 22 mayors and magistrates, its councils and a referendum on nuclear power on 28 November 2026 — the DPP holds 5 of the 22 and the KMT 14 — before the presidential and legislative elections of January 2028. Across the strait the People's Republic ran Justice Mission-2025 around the island on 29–30 December 2025, 130 aircraft and 27 rockets, and sent 244 vessels into Taiwan's waters in July 2026; Washington signed the trade agreement of 15 January 2026, sold US$11 billion of arms in December 2025 and, since the ruling of 20 February 2026 against its earlier duties, taxes Taiwan's goods at 10%; the island's diplomatic allies number 12.
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