Japan registers all-time low annual births at 811,000
Tokyo, Jun 3 (EFE).- Japan registered an all-time low annual birth figure of 811,604 in 2021, the government said on Friday, in a statistic that reflects the ageing demographic of the country and the birth rate dropping further during the pandemic.
The Asian country recorded 29,231 less births last year compared to 2020, and witnessed the lowest number of births on record since the Japanese ministry of health, labor and welfare first started keeping this data in 1899.
The average children per woman, or fertility rate, stood at 1.3 percent, having declined by 0.03 percent.
The fresh data is in line with the latest figures on infant population released by authorities on May 5 to mark the national children’s day, showing that the demographic group had shrunk to its smallest-ever size.
The number of children below the age of 15 in Japan on Apr. 1, when the new financial year begins, stood at around 14.65 million. Out of these 2.51 million are children younger than 2.
On Friday, the government also released fresh data about marriages: in 2021, Japan registered 501,116 marriages, 24,391 less than the previous year and the lowest figure since World War II.
The declining population has triggered concerns over the country’s aging population and the sustainability of the national pension scheme in such a scenario. EFE
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