Japan's Births In 2024 Fall Below 700,000 For First Time

TOKYO, June 4 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- The number of births in Japan fell below 700,000 for the first time in 2024, declining 5.7 per cent from the previous year to 686,061, government data showed Wednesday, highlighting a continued trend of delayed marriages and childbirth, Kyodo News reported. 

Japan's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is estimated to bear in her lifetime, also fell to a record low of 1.15, down from 1.20 in 2023, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Both the number of births and the fertility rate have decreased for nine consecutive years. The pace of Japan's declining birthrate is now 15 years ahead of government projections.

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The full-year figures exclude babies born to foreign nationals.

The number of marriages, a key factor influencing future birth trends, increased for the first time in two years in 2024 to 485,063, up by 10,322 from a year earlier.

A total of 1,605,298 deaths were reported, the highest number in the postwar period, while the natural decrease, deaths minus births, reached a record 919,237, marking a decline for the 18th straight year.

Japan's birthrate has been falling since hitting a peak during the second baby boom in 1973, when around 2.09 million births were recorded. The figure fell below 1 million in 2016 and below 800,000 in 2022.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research had not projected births to drop into the 680,000 range until 2039.

By prefecture, Tokyo recorded the lowest fertility rate at 0.96, followed by Miyagi at 1.00 and Hokkaido at 1.01. Okinawa in southern Japan had the highest rate at 1.54, followed by Fukui at 1.46.

-- BERNAMA-KYODO