Households becoming smaller
According to the DGBAS figures, there has been a 14.6% increase from 10 years ago in the number of households, up 940,000 to 7.41 million. The three most common household types are: nuclear families consisting of a father, mother, and their unmarried children, which account for 35.8% of all households, down from 41.5% 10 years ago; single individuals, who now account for 1.62 million households (22%); and married couples without children, or whose children have moved out, who account for 810,000 households (11%) and have surpassed stem families (800,000 households, 10.9%) to become the third most common type of household. (The census defines a stem family as a family in which grandparents, parents and unmarried children, or a married couple and their married children, or grandparents and their unmarried grandchildren, live in the same household.)
The number of large households is also shrinking: those with five people or more account for only 8.7% of the total, while those with six or more account for just 7.3%.
In fact, the number one trend revealed by the survey was towards smaller households. In 1990, the average Taiwanese household had four members, but that figure had fallen to 3.3 people by 2000, and just three by 2010.
Meanwhile, the number of households consisting of empty nesters or couples without children has grown by 62% over the last 10 years. Within this category, the percentage of elderly couples choosing to maintain separate households has also risen.
The MOI’s household census showed much the same thing. The percentage of seniors 65 and older living with only a spouse rose from 14% of all seniors in 1986 to 22% in 2005, before pulling back to 18.7% in 2009. Such numbers strongly suggest that traditional ideas about depending on your adult children in your old age have changed.
Academic research reveals that parents and their children feel that filial piety plays no role in the decision as to whether elderly parents live with their kids. Instead, many elderly couples choose to remain independent out of a desire to live out their later years in peace and quiet.
The types of housing available in Taiwan and their high cost also work against the maintenance of the stem family model. Most of Taiwan’s apartments are designed with small families in mind, making it difficult for even couples who would like to continue living with their parents after marrying and having children to do so.
A number of factors influence the decision many seniors make to live alone: Taiwanese thinking has transitioned away from the collectivistic to something much more individualistic; old and young live on different schedules; and people now believe that giving kids more space improves relations.
Everyone longs to have a perfect family. The secret is to put in the effort.