Handling of household registration affairs is the raison d’etre of the Republic of China, and this function exists principally to protect the rights and interests of our people by supplying detailed and accurate demographic information whenever necessary. The supervision of household affairs administration falls within the purview of the Ministry of the Interior together with the household affairs offices of county governments, which also handle these matters. Both of these agencies have wide jurisdictional powers in order to accomplish their objectives. When the population in a given area exceeds 300,000, we establish a new household affairs office to handle pertinent registrations. See Figure 3-1 for details of this system.
In July 1969, local household registration affairs were put under the jurisdiction of the police authorities on a trial basis. We took this move according to a policy set forth in the combined household registration and police affairs program. However, in May 1991, when the rebellion-suppression period was terminated, we amended the “Household Registration Law” accordingly. Thus, household registration and police affairs were separated in July 1992, returning household affairs to the civil administration system. Our government effected this change to conform to the principles of democracy.
II. Household Registration
The ROC household registration program is designed to collate and to supply demographic information and also officially to recognize personal status and relations. Registrations required by the Household Registration Law are as follows:
1. Personal Identification Registration: Including registration of births, deaths, declarations of
deaths, legitimization of children, adoptions, termination of adoptions, marriages, divorces,
and custody arrangements.
2. Migratory Registration: This category includes registration of immigration, emigration, and
changes in addresses.
3. Initial Household Registrations.
Through September of 1997, the "Household Registration and Conscription Information
System" had successfully developed a network of 800 household registration and conscription
administrative units all over the country. To provide more convenient services to the public, the
Household Registration and Conscription Information System had also built up a network of
information systems throughout 625 government agencies by end of year 2003. These efforts
built up a foundation for the government to provide complete services to our people and also to
make the services of household registration simple, innovative and convenient. During recent
technological innovations commencing in 2000, we have executed our plan centering on “e-
domicile administration”.Between 2003 and 2004, we renovated, in all our administrative
units, domicile computer system facilities. Our purpose in this case was to develop new service
systems to increase the efficiency of information services, to strengthen the foundation
structure of e-Government and also to provide multiple application services to other
government agencies and to the people.
III. Nationality Administration
Nationality administration covers handling and management of nationality affairs, implementation of nationality policies, setting and amending of nationality laws and regulations, processing changes (acquisition, naturalization, renunciation and resumption) of nationality, compiling data on nationality changes, and issuing of nationality certificates. Statistics concerning nationality changes in the past five years are shown in Table 3-2.
IV. Household Registration Statistics
Household registration statistics concern statistical handling of household registration data. That is, they involve data collection, processing, analysis, compilation and publication of these data. These efforts include natural, legal, social and educational status and various important events, which a person experiences from birth to death. Demographic statistics for the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas as of December 31, 2002 are shown in Table 3-3 and Figure 3-2.
V. Population Policy
Since population is one of the essential elements of a given nation, demographic characteristics are related closely to the strength and to the socioeconomic prosperity of that country. The Republic of China has a policy of maintaining reasonable population growth, upgrading the quality of its population, and promoting balanced national population distribution. With these points in mind, we are sparing no efforts to promote family planning, carry out eugenic health protection, and extending population education and revising those regulations that implicitly encourage fertility. We are also conducting publicity programs for population policy, and reinforcing research into the study of population problems. Our purpose is gradually to reduce the natural growth of our population, raise its quality and to balance population distribution. To adapt to contemporary socioeconomic developments, the。
“Guidelines for Population Policy of the Republic of China” and the “Population Policy Promotion Reinforcement Program” were revised again in April 1988. The ROC birth rate has declined in recent years. However, excessively quick movement towards negative growth in population may cause such serious social problems as population aging and an excessively high dependent population ratio. To avoid these problems, the MOI revised its “Guidelines for Population Policy of the Republic of China” and the“Population Policy Promotion Reinforcement Program”, with the Executive Yuan approving these changes in October 1992. The purpose of this latest revision is to promote rational population growth.
Our government has for many years achieved outstanding goals in the promotion of its population policies and family planning programs. In 1987 and in 1992, the USA Population Crisis Committee rated the Republic of China’s population programs as the best among the world’s developing countries. The population of the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas increased from 20,995,416 persons in 1993 to 22,604,550 persons in 2003. During this period, the natural population growth rate dropped from 10.27 to 4.27 per thousand (Figure 3-3). Population density at the end of 2003 was 624 persons per square kilometer in the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas, 1,336 persons in the North, 541 persons in the Central, 643 persons in the South, 73 persons in the East, and 384 persons in the Kinmen Area. Life expectancy in the Taiwan-Fuchien Areas was 73.35 years for males and 79.05 years for females in 2003. In comparison with a selected number of countries, life expectancy in the ROC is lower than that of Japan for both males and females, comparable to levels in Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom and South Korea, and much higher than in the Philippines. This comparison shows that life expectancy in our country is lower than in developed nations but higher than in developing countries, indicating that the ROC is moving toward the club of developed nations. Detailed statistics are shown in Table 3-4.
VI. Promoting Migration Affairs Guidance
ROC nationals have a tendency to emigrate overseas to develop their businesses. In order to promote international cooperation among people, the MOI plans to promote and guide migration affairs as follows:
1. Collect migration information for public reference purposes.
2. Help migration companies to develop their businesses legally.
3. Offer training programs for migration specialists.
4. Reinforce management of migration advertising.
5. Guide the establishment of migration associations.
6. Promote guidance of migration activities.
7. Assist foreign spouses of citizens in Taiwan to live comfortably.
8. Guide marriage brokers to develop their business legally.
In order to take charge of such affairs as emigration, entry and exit, management of foreign expatriates, and verification of various travel documents, certificates and licenses, the government began enforcing an “Immigration Law” in May 1999. Emigration from the Taiwan-Fuchien Area to major destinations is shown in Table 3-5.
