Does anyone have any idea how many westerners are resident in Taiwan? The problem with government stats is that they count nationalities; for example the number of Americans is about 45,000 but this includes many Taiwanese holding U.S. passports. Counterbalancing that is the number of foreigners who in live here but don’t have legal resident status.
My guess for the number of foreigners in Taiwan (excluding ethnic Chinese and the 300,000 workers from S.E. Asia ) would be around 40,000. Secondly, how much has the foreign population in your area increased in the last few years. I’ve noticed more foreigners (often South Africans) moving into small rural towns in areas like Yunlin Shen and Chiayi Shen. Cheers.