Society Record low in births in 2024

We had the same headline last year.

The number of births in Japan, including those of foreign nationals, fell to a record low of 720,988 in 2024, marking the ninth consecutive year of decline. The country's declining birthrate shows no signs of slowing. According to preliminary data released by the health ministry on 27 February, the number of births in 2024 dropped by 37,643—around 5 per cent—compared to the previous year's provisional figure.

Births in Japan fell below 1 million in 2017, with annual declines consistently ranging between 3 and 5 per cent. This figure is significantly lower than the 2023 projection of 779,000 births by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research for 2024.

However, the actual figure was closer to the institute's low-end estimate of 690,000, which assumed a faster decline in the birthrate. The low-end estimate projects that annual births will fall below 600,000 in 2040. The latest preliminary figure includes Japanese and foreign children born in Japan, as well as Japanese children born abroad in 2024. [...] The number of marriages, which directly affects the birthrate, stood at 499,999 couples in 2024, the second lowest since the end of World War II. While the number represents a 2.2 percent increase―10,718 more marriages than in the previous year's preliminary figure―the overall trend remains downward.

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