More people moving into Taiwan than moving out

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- More people moved into Taiwan than those who moved out in the first six months of this year, the latest tallies compiled by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) showed Sunday.

According to the MOI tallies, 47,000 people immigrated to Taiwan or registered their households in Taiwan for the first time in the first six months of this year, while 32,000 people emigrated abroad or moved out of the country.

The northern county of Taipei had the highest rate of net inward immigration among all administrative districts in Taiwan this year, the tallies showed.

The MOI statistics showed that Taipei County had the highest net inward population migration in the first six months of this year, with a figure of 9,843, followed by the outlying island county of Kinmen with 4,659, and Taoyuan County with 4,585.

During the same period, a total of 950,000 people -- 41 in every 1,000 -- migrated around the country, the statistics showed.

Meanwhile, the capital city of Taipei had the highest rate of outward migration among all administrative districts in the country, with a gross out-migration of 7,878 people in the first half of the year.

Taipei City was followed by the central Changhua County with an outward migration of 2,080 people and the southern Kaohsiung County with 1,273 during the same six-month period.

In the first half of this year, 2,885 people moved from abroad to live in Taipei County, while 1,551 moved to Taoyuan County, and 1,090 moved to the central county of Taichung County, according to the statistics.

Over the past five years, Taipei County, Taoyuan County, Taichung City, Hsinchu County and Kinmen County have been the major districts in terms of migration, while Taipei City, Changhua County and Pingtung County have topped all districts in terms of net out-migration, the statistics showed.

More than 141,000 people have moved residence from other districts to the cities and counties in northern Taiwan over the past five years, indicating that the Taiwan population remains centered in the north, a Ministry of the Interior official said.

For the first time in the country's demographic history, the rate of inward migration in eastern Taiwan this year was higher than the out-migration figure, the official noted.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin attributed Taipei City's high rate of outward migration to factors that include the city's decreasing birth rate, high cost of living and steep real estate prices.