Taiwan's Low Birth Rate

Reprint: [The whole world is struggling, but only one can be number one] In 2025, Taiwan has earned the title of the country with the world's lowest birth rate, with only 107,000 newborns annually. Behind this number lies an even more dismal figure: a 21% drop in 2025. In contrast, South Korea's drop in its worst year, 2023, was only 7%. Therefore, last year, Taiwan's birth rate drop was not double that of South Korea's worst year, but triple! Taiwan is truly in a dire situation. Positively correlated with this grim situation are 'Taiwan's housing prices' and 'the explosive growth of the AI industry'. Taiwan's housing prices and rents reached an all-time high in the third quarter of 2024. In the years prior, due to government policies and loose monetary conditions, Taiwan's housing prices and rents had already been soaring for years. Furthermore, in the years leading up to 2025, the global AI boom led to record-breaking economic growth rates in Taiwan. The Taiwanese dollar, which should have significantly appreciated to 1:13 under free exchange rates, was suppressed by the central bank's intervention to prevent further appreciation. This resulted in a massive influx of M2 money into the domestic economy, ultimately causing inflation to explode across Taiwan. (However, the CPI announced by the government remained stably at 2%.) High housing prices and rents stem from Taiwan, which has the world's highest vacancy rate but no vacancy tax. High prices are a result of the central bank channeling the fruits of economic growth back to the public through inflation via exchange rates. With sky-high housing prices and rents, and soaring living costs, the public is forced to become 'sterile' to survive, despite the economy performing exceptionally well.