A total of 20,608 marriages between Taiwanese and foreigners were registered in 2018, with most of the foreign spouses coming from Southeast Asia, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior.

The number of foreign spouses from Southeast Asia was 8,749, accounting for 42.45 percent of all the foreigners married to Taiwanese last year, the statistics show.

Some 6,070 of the Southeast Asian spouses were from Vietnam, the government data indicates.

The second-largest group of foreign spouses comprised people from China at 6,944, or 33.7 percent, followed by 1,272, or 6.17 percent, from Hong Kong and Macau, and 3,643, or 17.68 percent, from other nations and areas, according to the tallies.

There were a total of 135,403 couples married in Taiwan in 2018, the lowest figure for nine years, said the ministry.