Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) The large number of newborns in 2012 (the Year of the Dragon) has more than doubled Taiwan's annual population growth rate within a two-year period, the Ministry of the Interior said Sunday. As of the end of 2012, Taiwan's total population reached 23.31 million, 90,910 people up from 2011, pushing the annual population growth rate to 3.91 per thousand, according to the ministry. The annual population growth rate was 1.83 per thousand and 2.71 per thousand in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Hsieh Ai-ling, director of the ministry's Department of Household Registration, said there were 234,599 newborns in Taiwan in the Year of the Dragon, which is considered to be auspicious, up 38,000 from the previous year and boosting the birth rate to 1.265 babies per woman of childbearing age. In 2011, the average woman of childbearing age gave birth to only 0.89 children in Taiwan -- the lowest birth rate in the world. The ministry said the number of newborns this year is expected to exceed 200,000, based on the average number of newlyweds in the last three to five years, and it expects the average birth rate in recent years to reach 1.2 babies. Last year, 143,384 couples got married in Taiwan, down 21,943 from 2011. (By Angela Tsai and Jamie Wang)