Tokyo, Feb 27 (UNI) The birth rate in Japan fell to nearly 721,000 people in 2024, the lowest rate since 1899, when such statistics began to be kept, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported on Thursday, citing preliminary data from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The data includes foreigners living in Japan as well as Japanese living abroad. More accurate annual statistics will be released in June, and it is possible that the birth rate in 2024 did not even reach 700,000 children. In 2023, 758,600 children were born in the country. This year, the decrease was 5% compared with the last year, the data showed.
Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has predicted that the country’s birth rate would fall to 720,000 only by 2039. Reality has thus exceeded the predictions of scientists by 15 years.
The difference between the number of deaths and the number of births in Japan last year was a record high of 897,700, according to the data.
