為研究臺灣四百年的人口密度之趨勢,本文藉由歷史學者之考據以及當代官方人口統計資料的蒐集,並量化臺灣各時期(荷據、明鄭、清領、日治與民國時期)行政區域之土地面積,計算長期臺灣人口密度。 本研究蒐集近四百年來臺灣的人口統計數,也相信這些數據下計算之。計算人口密度的方法是採用單位面積土地上平均居住的人口數。文獻上有關臺灣長期人口密度的計算,往往因沒有考慮到行政區域土地面積之變遷,而容易發生偏誤,亦不能清楚地解釋當時人口問題。本研究進行人口密度的計算的同時,考慮各個時間點之人口數據下,所對應的行政區域之面積,以符合人口密度上的定義,也避開以臺灣全島的土地面積下,所計算的人口密度造成常見之偏誤。
This thesis discusses on the population density of Taiwan. Commonly, the definition of the population density is measurement of population per unit area. Considering the uniqueness history of Taiwan, we think about the Han Chinese expanded in Taiwan since Dutch Formosa until now, the area of administrative divisions in Taiwan is not a constant; it is variable with the time. Many studies about the population density of Taiwan are usually calculating by fixed area of Taiwan, but it may be not followed the definition of the population density and lead to the bias on calculating to the population density of Taiwan. We argue that the calculation of the population density of Taiwan by fixed area of Taiwan may be unfit, and consider variable of the area of administrative divisions in Taiwan. We preliminarily survey on the population density of Taiwan, and desirously avoid the biases.