Taiwan is among the bottom countries in the world in terms of fertility rate, with a total fertility rate (TFR) -- the annual number of births per 1,000 of the total population -- at just 8.3, comparable to Germany and even lower than the traditionally low fertility countries such as Austria and Japan. Statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior Saturday indicate that in 2009, there were 191,310 babies born in Taiwan, a decrease of 3.7 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, as more and more Taiwanese have married foreigners, 10 percent of the babies born last year were children of such marriages. Meanwhile, the 2009 world population data sheet released recently by the U.S. Population Reference Bureau indicates that while Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, in recent years have joined various European countries with low fertility, Taiwan had the lowest TFR among Asian countries last year. Globally, Monaco had the lowest birth rate, with just seven new births per 1,000, followed by Taiwan and Germany. 