TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — During the first quarter of the year, a total of 47,626 people passed away while only 34,917 births were registered, underscoring the rapid aging of Taiwan’s population, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) said Saturday (April 10).

The country’s number of inhabitants recorded its first-ever drop in 2020, falling by 41,885 to 23,561,236. The number of inhabitants of the island country passed the 20-million mark in 1989 and reached 23 million in 2008, according to official data.

Compared to the first quarter last year, the number of births declined by 5,497 or 13.6 percent, while the total number of deaths increased by 659 or 1.4 percent, CNA reported.

The number of births showed a gradual increase though, if split up month by month, with 9,601 babies born in Jan. 2021 and 13,819 in March. During the quarter more boys than girls were born, 18,031 to 16,886, while more men than women died, 27,662 to 19,964, according to the MOI data.

Migration statistics showed that 2.48 million people left Taiwan during the first quarter, while 2.25 million moved in, a rise of 2.04 percent and a drop of 7.34 percent respectively compared to the same period in 2020.

By the end of March, Taiwan’s total population stood at 23,525,623, a drop of 0.3 percent from one year earlier, meaning the country lost on average 194.2 people per day.

Analysts attributed the falling number of births to the lower number of weddings. During the first quarter of 2021, 28,341 heterosexual couples and 414 same-sex couples got married, for the total a drop of 13.25 percent from the same period in 2020.

However, the overall number of divorces also fell over the same period, by 6.92 percent to a total of 11,561 for heterosexual couples and 130 for gay couples, CNA reported.