Taipei: Foreign spouses accounted for 18.5 percent of all marriages in Taiwan in 2025, marking the highest share over the past decade, despite a decrease of 2,554 in the number of foreign spouses from the previous year, as reported by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

According to Focus Taiwan, the latest Statistical Bulletin released by the MOI showed that the number of registered marriages in Taiwan peaked at 148,000 in 2016 but declined to 104,000 in 2025, representing a 15.2 percent drop from 2024. Out of these, 85,042 marriages were between two Republic of China (ROC) nationals, making up 81.5 percent, while 19,334 marriages involved one spouse who was a foreign national or a resident of mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macao, constituting 18.5 percent of the total.

The crude marriage rate in 2025 stood at 4.5 per 1,000 population. Historical data indicated that marriages involving a non-ROC national spouse numbered 20,359 in 2016, accounting for 13.8 percent of all registered marriages. This figure reached a peak of 22,469 in 2023, making up 17.9 percent of all marriages, before falling to 19,334 in 2025. Nevertheless, the share of marriages involving a non-ROC national spouse hit a new 9-year high of 18.5 percent.

The MOI data highlighted that among foreign spouses in 2025, those from Southeast Asia were the largest group, numbering 9,596 and representing 9.2 percent of all marriages and 49.6 percent of all foreign spouses. Spouses from mainland China totaled 5,170, accounting for 5.0 percent of all marriages and 26.7 percent of all foreign spouses.

Excluding spouses from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao, Vietnamese nationals were the largest group at 6,427, followed by U.S. nationals at 880 and Indonesians at 821. Regionally, northern Taiwan recorded the highest number of foreign spouses at 9,806, or 50.7 percent of the total. Southern Taiwan followed with 4,578, or 23.7 percent, while central Taiwan had 4,499, or 23.3 percent. Eastern Taiwan and the Kinmen-Lienchiang (Matsu) regions had 296 and 155 foreign spouses, respectively.

The gender ratio among foreign spouses rose from 31.8 in 2016 to 43.5 in 2025, indicating a narrowing gap between male and female foreign spouses. The gender ratio measures the number of males per 100 females, with a ratio above 100 indicating more males than females. In 2025, there were 13,471 female foreign spouses, accounting for 69.7 percent of the total, compared with 5,863 male foreign spouses, or 30.3 percent.