Data Taiwan — Understanding an Island Through Numbers
Interactive visualizations and open data to understand the real face of an island
A curated space for Taiwan's data story. From enterprise landscape to open data, from accurate Taiwan outlines to digital democracy experiments — we use interactive visualization and open resources to let the numbers tell Taiwan's story.
Taiwan's Position in the World
A landmass the size of Belgium hosts 23 million people and produces 92% of the world's most advanced computer chips. Taiwan's economic density is staggering: $75,000 GDP per capita from an island smaller than Switzerland, yet housing more people than Australia.
These numbers aren't just statistics — they're the blueprint of an impossible story. How does 0.32% of Earth's land create 4% of global wealth? From the world's highest convenience store density to Asia's top democracy ranking, here are eight metrics that decode Taiwan's outsized global footprint.
Population Structure: An Island's Age Portrait
In 2025, Taiwan's median age exceeds 43 years. This once-young island is aging—not slowly, but at one of the world's fastest rates.
Drag the timeline to see how an island's age portrait transforms from pyramid to inverted triangle over half a century.
The Shape of Taiwan — AI Can't Draw Taiwan Correctly. Here's the Real Version.
Most AI image generation models lack structured geographic data for Taiwan in their training sets. The result: AI-generated images of Taiwan are often distorted, disproportionate, or confused with other islands.
Taiwan.md provides accurate, open-source, freely usable SVG outlines — a definitive answer for every scenario that needs to know "what does Taiwan look like."
Taiwan as AI Draws It vs the Real Taiwan
Explore the full open-source map archive
SVG outlines, TopoJSON for counties and townships, usage examples in D3.js, Leaflet, Python, and Vue, plus administrative code references and other open data sources — all on one dedicated page.
Go to Taiwan's Shape →Digital Democracy Timeline — 30 Years of Digital Governance Evolution
From government digitization to digital democracy: Taiwan's journey from e-government to open government to digital resilience.
Hover over each milestone to learn more about Taiwan's unique digital democracy experiments.
Open Data
Government Open Data
Structured datasets and statistical platforms released by government agencies
- Government Open Data Platform — In 2020, engineers used this data to build the mask-availability map in 72 hours, ending nationwide pharmacy queues
- DGBAS Statistical Database — Population, economy, price indices and core national statistics
- CEC Election Database — Historical election results and voting data
- Laws & Regulations Database — Full-text search of all laws, orders, and judicial precedents
- Air Quality Monitoring Network — Real-time AQI and PM2.5 monitoring data
Interactive Maps & Visualization
Real-time monitoring, geographic data, and environmental visualization tools
- Taiwan Submarine Cable Map — Community-built real-time submarine cable monitoring — a civic tech exemplar
- NLSC Map Service — National land survey maps, aerial photos, and cadastral data
- Seismological Center — Real-time earthquake information and historical records
- WRA Disaster Prevention — Real-time water levels, river monitoring, and reservoir data
- Environmental Monitoring — Air quality, UV index, and water quality real-time monitoring
Civic Tech
Open source communities, fact-checking, and digital democracy tools
- g0v (gov-zero) — Founded in 2012; birthplace of the mask map, Cofacts, vTaiwan and other civic-tech projects that changed Taiwan
- g0v Hackathon Events — Bimonthly hackathons and open data community events
- Cofacts — Anyone can submit hoaxes forwarded in LINE groups for fact-checking; tens of thousands of checks logged so far
- vTaiwan — Uses the Polis algorithm to find consensus; shaped policies from Uber regulation to distance-learning rules
- JOIN Platform — Government proposals, petitions, and policy discussions
Data Journalism & Fact-Checking
Investigative reporting, fact-checking organizations, and data-driven media
- The Reporter — Founded in 2015, Taiwan's first non-profit investigative newsroom, behind repeated exposés on major public issues
- Taiwan FactCheck Center — IFCN-certified; a Facebook third-party fact-checking partner
- READr — Data journalism and open data visualization
- ARTouch — Taiwan's premier art news and criticism platform
Academic & Research
Digital archives, ecological data, and AI training corpora
- Academia Sinica Open Museum — Digital archives and online curation
- National Cultural Memory Bank — Digital preservation of Taiwanese cultural memory
- Taiwan Biodiversity Network — Species distribution and ecological observation data
- TAIC — Taiwan AI Corpus — Taiwan's sovereign AI training dataset
Enterprise Landscape — How Does One Country Power the Global Supply Chain?
Taiwan punches far above its weight in the global economy. This country of 23 million people produces over 60% of the world's semiconductors, 92% of the most advanced chips, and houses the supply chain nerve center for everything from iPhones to Tesla vehicles.
The interactive bubble chart below reveals Taiwan's economic DNA — where TSMC alone represents 43.8% of Taiwan's total market capitalization, equivalent to the combined value of four-fifths of all other listed companies. Behind the "Silicon Shield" narrative lies a concentrated ecosystem of precision manufacturing, from Foxconn's massive electronics assembly to ASE's semiconductor packaging empire.
Budget Decade — How Taiwan Splits Its NT$3 Trillion
Taiwan's FY2026 central budget passed its third reading on August 14 — the latest ever recorded. Legal spending has grown from NT$1.98T to NT$2.99T over the decade.
This page draws on DGBAS's own tables, broken into nine areas, with a source data table behind every chart — so every number traces back to where it came from.