ABSTRACT
Taiwan, officially named the ‘Republic of China’, is an island country located at the west edge of the Pacific between Japan and the Philippines. Despite its limited land resource, a total area of 36,000 km2, it has a population of 21,742,815 persons (1997 figures). On average, there are 604 persons per km2 and 3.56 persons per household. Approximately two-thirds of the total area is unfavourable to land development due to site gradients. The island is roughly divided by the Central Mountain Range, which runs from north to south with most settlements developed in the western Taiwan plain. However, Taipei, the capital city, is located at the northern end of Taiwan, it has a total area of 271.8 km2 and a population of 2,598,000 persons. On average, the population density is 9,560 persons per km2 and household size is 3.04 persons per household.
