Taiwan

AsiaCapital metro: TaipeiPresident: Lai Ching-te
2026 population
23.2M
Rank #60 globally
Area
36k km² (14k sq mi)
Metros tracked
6
85% of population in metros
Composite score
84.7
Rank #31 globally

population: Official estimate (31 Jun 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 6 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography6 metros

Taiwan metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
6 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 6 tracked metros
6 metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

22 entries listed under Taiwan across 3 types. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

22 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
Tsou, Seediq, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Puyuma +17 more
Government
Constitutional republic
Legislature
Legislative Yuan
Demonym
taiwanese
Time zones
Taiwan time, UTC+08:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+886
Internet TLD
.tw
ISO 3166
TW
Established
1912
Highest point
Yushan Main Peak (3,952 m (12,966 ft))
National anthem
National Anthem of the Republic of China

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and development
Median age
43.5 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Rule of law
#32 / 175
0.92
V-Dem · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#177 / 192
11.3 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#142 / 186
12%
Ember · 2025

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations1 full membership

Regional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History21 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Lai Ching-te✦ Current

2024Present

President

Tenure: 2024–presentDemocratic Progressive Party

Tsai Ing-wen

20162024

President

Tenure: 2016–2024Democratic Progressive Party

Ma Ying-jeou

20082016

President

Tenure: 2008–2016Kuomintang

⚠️ Chen Shui-bian

20002008

President

Tenure: 2000–2008Democratic Progressive Party

Lee Teng-hui

19882000

President

Tenure: 1988–2000Kuomintang

Chiang Ching-kuo

19781988

President

Tenure: 1978–1988Kuomintang

Yen Chia-kan

19751978

President

Tenure: 1975–1978Kuomintang

⚠️ Chiang Kai-shek

19501975

President

Tenure: 1950–1975Kuomintang

Li Tsung-jen

19491950

President

Tenure: 1949–1950 (acting)Kuomintang

⚠️ Chiang Kai-shek

19481949

President

Tenure: 1948–1949 (first term)Kuomintang

Republic of China

Li Zongren

19491950

President

Tenure: 1y 1m 9dKuomintang
Home metro: Guilin

⚠️ Chiang Kai-shek

19431949

President

Tenure: 5y 4m 2dKuomintang
Home metro: Nanjing,Shanghai

Lin Sen

19311943

President

Tenure: 11y 7m 17dKuomintang
Home metro: Fuzhou

⚠️ Chiang Kai-shek

19281931

President

Tenure: 2y 11m 10dKuomintang
Home metro: Nanjing,Shanghai

Cao Kun

19231924

President

Tenure: 1y 24dIndependent
Home metro: Tianjin

Li Yuanhong

19221923

President

Tenure: 1y 11dIndependent
Home metro: Wuhan

Xu Shichang

19181922

President

Tenure: 3y 7m 26dIndependent
Home metro: Tianjin

Feng Guozhang

19171918

President

Tenure: 1y 3mIndependent
Home metro: Beijing

Li Yuanhong

19161917

President

Tenure: 1y 1m 6dIndependent
Home metro: Wuhan

Yuan Shikai

19121916

President

Tenure: 4y 2m 29dIndependent
Home metro: Beijing

Sun Yat-sen

19121912

President

Tenure: 2m 9dKuomintang
Home metro: Guangzhou
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#30 · 0.7%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Taiwan · share of world power, 1949–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19455 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths: 1,054+
Combat deaths: 914–1,054
Taiwan Forces of the coalition of Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Wang Jingwei, and Li Zongren,1930–1944,Start,Finish,Name of Conflict,Belligerents,Victorious party (if applicable),Defeated party (if applicable)
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
23.3m
#59 in the world
Since 1800
12×
from 2.0m
Past its peak
−1.5%
peaked at 23.7m in 2019
Share of world
0.29%
0.20% in 1800
5.9m11.8m17.8m23.7m18001850190019502000
Taiwan · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Taiwan is past its peak, which is less unusual than it sounds: the two lines here can point in opposite directions, and for most of Europe and East Asia they now both point down.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Taiwan: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak
2019
23.7m; already passed
2050
19.4m
95% band 16.4m to 22.3m
2100
10.0m
95% band 4.5m to 18.8m
2100 against 2025
0.43×
median falling from 2024
Deaths outnumber births
since 2019
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
6.2m12.4m18.6m24.9m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
342k born · 80k died · -5k net migration
TFR 6.48 · life expectancy 56.6 · median age 17.7
1960
424k born · 81k died · +61k net migration
TFR 5.79 · life expectancy 62.5 · median age 16.9
1970
387k born · 70k died · -39k net migration
TFR 3.98 · life expectancy 69.0 · median age 17.7
1980
428k born · 82k died · -10k net migration
TFR 2.53 · life expectancy 72.0 · median age 21.6
1990
340k born · 104k died · -63k net migration
TFR 1.79 · life expectancy 73.9 · median age 26.1
2000
273k born · 128k died · -46k net migration
TFR 1.47 · life expectancy 76.1 · median age 31.1
2010
171k born · 150k died · +18k net migration
TFR 0.92 · life expectancy 79.0 · median age 36.5
2020
161k born · 174k died · -21k net migration
TFR 0.99 · life expectancy 81.1 · median age 41.7
Show all 16 decades
2030
116k born · 223k died · -4k net migration
TFR 0.89 · life expectancy 81.9 · median age 47.8
2040
106k born · 272k died · +7k net migration
TFR 0.99 · life expectancy 83.5 · median age 53.0
2050
104k born · 313k died · +7k net migration
TFR 1.07 · life expectancy 84.9 · median age 56.3
2060
84k born · 316k died · +6k net migration
TFR 1.14 · life expectancy 86.2 · median age 58.1
2070
74k born · 300k died · +7k net migration
TFR 1.20 · life expectancy 87.5 · median age 58.4
2080
72k born · 265k died · +6k net migration
TFR 1.25 · life expectancy 88.6 · median age 59.6
2090
68k born · 217k died · +2k net migration
TFR 1.30 · life expectancy 89.7 · median age 58.0
2100
58k born · 182k died · +3k net migration
TFR 1.33 · life expectancy 90.9 · median age 56.8

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Taiwan on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.