本文使用2002 年社會變遷基本調查第四期第三次資料進行社會排除之多重弱勢估算，從所得、就業、社會互動／參與、政治參與、健康與社會支持網絡等六個面向來檢視台灣的多面向弱勢情況。主要研究發現有三：第一、狹義的、同時兼有三面向以上弱勢者佔4.5%，具有三面向以上弱勢者，在人口社會特性上，呈現出以低教育、非典型婚姻狀況者（離婚、同居、分居）、高齡者為較高的風險群。第二、在各弱勢面向與多重弱勢的形成關連中，低所得及無社會支持網絡是六種面向中易出現、且與其他弱勢面向間有較高比例的共同存在，而宜視為最重要的弱勢面向。第三、利用對應分析發現三群組的多重弱勢類型群聚，研究者命名為：類傳統貧窮的多重弱勢、以無工作為核心的多重弱勢、以無政治參與為核心的自我排除。本文亦對推算多重弱勢方法的合宜性進行探討，指出：西方學者所習於使用的、利用多重弱勢方法而描繪社會排除圖像的方法並不合宜，主要的限制有三：第一、利用多重弱勢概念作為社會排除的操作化尚且無法表達累積、動態性及制度作用等社會排除的核心意義。其次，在資料上，因受限於資料庫，而往往無法探討多年期弱勢，又無法將理論概念所必須納入的弱勢項目與面向納入。第三、利用多重弱勢重疊的方法，在資料處理上易自陷於交集限制，而造成統計數字上的假象。最後，本文作者建議後續研究宜朝向可以呈現弱勢累積歷程的個案研究發展。

Social exclusion has been defined as possible combinations of at least three of the following six disadvantages: low income, unemployment, lack of social interaction, inactive political participation, lack of social-support relationship, and ill health. This paper studies the social-excluded population of Taiwan, first by employing the Database of Taiwan Social Change Surrey (TSCS/2002) to estimate their number. The study has three main findings. First, the severely disadvantaged group, characterized by havingatleastthreedisadvantagesoutofthesix,isabout4.5%ofTaiwan's population second, the disadvantages of low income and a lack of social support relationship are the two decisive dimensions of the six in forming the severely disadvantage group. And third, the current findings show that the demographic characteristic of the severely disadvantaged group are the relatively uneducated, the unmarried, and the elderly. By multiple correspondence analysis, three clusters of disadvantaged groups are identified: the poverty-extended, the unemployment-marginalized, and the self-excluded. In addition to estimating the number of the multi-disadvantaged in Taiwan, the author reflects upon the shortcomings of methods employed in this and related studies. The regret wore as ones to explain why the databases employed in related researches are not suitable for the thematic definition and concepts. First, the concepts and dynamics of social exclusion are too complicated to be reduced into exact operational definition. The so-called multi-disadvantages method, which employs intersected selection, can easily result in fallacious statistics. Finally, it is suggested that other method, such as life course case studies, might get closer to the reality of social exclusion and multi-disadvantages.