Offbeat | A fifth of divorces in Taiwan are transnational couples

As of May this year, the proportion of total divorces in Taiwan that involved one Taiwanese partner and a foreigner has continued to fall as in the previous six years.

Some 20.2 percent of the 21,000 divorces registered in Taiwan between January and May involved a foreign national, while only 14.4 percent of the 61,000 marriages were registered as “transnational”, according to the newspaper Taiwan News.

At the same time, new transnational marriages are increasing as a proportion of total marriages, up 1.7 percent between January and May compared with the same period last year.

The data implies that although transnational couples are still more likely to divorce than culturally homogeneous ones, that propensity itself is on the decline.

In fact the share of transnational divorces has been falling since 2010, when it stood at about 26 percent. Last year, the share was 20.3 percent, while it was 20.8 percent in 2015.

Citing statistics released by Taiwan’s Directorate General od Budget, Accounting and Statistics, the newspaper said that more than 4,300 transnational divorces were registered on the island-state in the first five months of 2017.

Of these, couples with a spouse from mainland China accounted for 54.1 percent of the total, while those with a Southeast Asian spouse represented 38 percent. Just 1.6 percent of transnational couples had one of the partners from Macau or Hong Kong, while the remaining 6.3 percent (accounting for 271 people) were listed as “other”.

One hundred and eight fewer Chinese spouses have sought a divorce this year, compared with the same period last year, representing a 4.4 percent decline.