Government data released on Wednesday, May 4, showed the estimated child population in Japan dropping for the 41st consecutive year to a record low. The ongoing spread of the coronavirus may have something to do with the decrease in the child population, as Japanese women are believed to have refrained from having kids during the COVID pandemic.
According to the country's internal affairs ministry, the number of children aged 14 or younger in Japan had declined to 14.65 million as of April 1, a massive drop of 250,000 kids compared to the previous year. Kyodo News reported that this is the lowest figure for the Japanese child population since comparable data became available in 1950.
The internal affairs ministry included foreigners aged 14 or younger in the released data. The ratio of children to the overall population in Japan also hit a record low of 11.7 percent. That is down 0.1 percentage point compared to the previous year. The ratio of children to the overall Japanese population has now declined for the 48th straight year.
All of Japan's prefectures saw a decline in the child population
According to the U.N. Demographic Yearbook, Japan has the lowest such ratio among the 35 countries with a population of over 40 million, falling below the 12.9 percent rate of Italy and the 11.9 percent rate of South Korea.
The gender breakdown of the kids in Japan showed boys accounting for 7.51 million of the total while girls made up 7.15 million, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data.
NHK World reported that there were 3.23 million children between the ages of 12 and 14 in Japan, compared with 2.51 million kids aged up to 2. This perfectly reflects the trend that the number of children falls as they become younger.
All 47 of Japan's prefectures saw a decline in child population from the previous year as of October 1, the first time that has happened since 1999. The highest ratio of children in its overall population belonged to the southern prefecture of Okinawa (16.5 percent).
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Birth rate decline a problem not only for Japan but also for the rest of the world
On the other hand, Akita, located in the country's northeast, logged the lowest ratio of children in its overall population at 9.5 percent. The child population in Japan reached its peak back in 1954, with 29.89 million children recorded during that time. The number of children in Japan briefly picked up around the early 1970s but has continued to fall since 1982.
It is not just Japan, though, which has this problem, with many countries witnessing a staggering birth rate decline. According to a report by MedCityNews, population data from the United Nations revealed that the annual global population growth rate was 1 percent in 2020, down from 2.1 percent in 1960. The growth rate is projected to drop even further to 0.1 percent by 2100.
