If we assume that Taiwanese firms in the mainland have each based about ten Taiwanese workers there, then include mainland-based Taiwanese working for foreign firms, and the Taiwanese businesspeople operating small-and-medium-sized sole proprietorships, there are probably 800,000 to 1 million Taiwanese businesspeople in the mainland.
若以一家台資企業外派 10 名台幹計算，加上由第三國轉進、外商派駐大陸的台籍幹部，以及自行前去的中小企業「個體戶」，估計遍佈在大陸的台商人數約在 80 至 100 萬人之間；如果一個台商家庭平均有 1.2 名小孩，那麼兩岸間至少有 100 萬名「台商子女」。