 In addition, there was a surge in population as the Chinese Civil War ended and the Kuomintang (KMT) forces retreated, bringing an influx of 1.2 to 2 million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 19481949.Consequently, the natural growth rate after that was very rapid, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, with an effective annual growth rate as high as 3.68% during 19511956.Including the Kuomintang forces, which accounted in 1950 for about 25% of all persons in Taiwan, immigration of mainland Chinese (who now constitute approximately 10% of the present population) at the end of the 1940s was a major factor in the high population growth of Taiwan.