A broad range of academic surveys using nationally representative samples consistently shows strong support among Taiwanese people—including young adults under 30—for defending their homeland.
Between 1998 and 2012, the World Values Survey found that 84 to 86 percent of respondents were willing to fight for Taiwan in the event of war. Even in 2019, that number remained high at 77 percent. Similarly, the 2020 Taiwan Social Image Survey, conducted by the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica, also reported a 77 percent willingness to defend Taiwan. The following year, the Institute’s 2021 China Impact Survey recorded an even higher figure of 81 percent.
Further evidence comes from a series of nationally representative polls conducted by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), a think tank affiliated with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense. Between 2021 and 2024, five waves of surveys consistently showed that 74 to 81 percent of Taiwanese citizens were willing to fight against a Chinese military attack.
More recently, the March 2025 American Portrait Survey—conducted during a time of heightened global tensions and increasing risks to Taiwan’s security—found that 63 percent of respondents said they would resist a Chinese invasion “at all costs.”
Among those aged 18 to 30, willingness to fight for Taiwan varies across surveys but remains substantial, ranging from 53 percent to as high as 88 percent.
