Japan's child population drops for 41st year, hitting record low
May 04, 2022
Tokyo [Japan], May 4 : Japan has recorded the lowest share of children in the country's population in 41 years at 14.65 million, according to the data from the Japanese Interior Ministry released on Wednesday.
The decrease in the number of children under 15 in the population for 47 consecutive years has resulted in the current share of 11.7 per cent.
The data, published ahead of the Children's Day on Thursday, reveals that the number of children under 15 has declined by 250,000 since last year.
Among 14.65 million children, 7.5 million are boys and 7.15 million are girls, with the largest share of 16.5 per cent of the population registered in Okinawa and the lowest of 9.5 per cent in Akita prefectures.
The interior ministry also noted a downward trend in the number of children as the age group decreases. The biggest age group is 12-14-year-olds with 3.23 million children registered and the smallest one is the under 2 age group with 2.52 million children.
As of October 1, all 47 of the country's prefectures saw a decline in child population from the previous year, for the first time since 1999.
Japan's child population peaked in 1954 at 29.89 million, The Japan Times reported. The number picked up around the early 1970s but has continued to fall since 1982.
