On the 20th, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced preliminary vital statistics for October. The number of births between January and October this year was 669,871, a decrease of 33,827 (4.8%) from the same period last year. If this trend continues, the number of births this year will fall below last year’s record low of 811,622 (confirmed), and it is highly likely that the number will fall below 800,000 for the first time since statistics began.
In addition to the conventional trend of declining birthrates, the effects of the new coronavirus, which has spread since 2020, are protracted.
The number of births in October was 70,235, 2,894 fewer than in the same month last year. The number of births decreased for the ninth consecutive month compared to the same month of the previous year. The number of births in the year to October was 809,070, down 33,404 from the previous year. The sharp decline in the number of marriages in 2020 from the previous year is believed to have affected the number of births in 2022.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths in the year to October this year was 1,546,142. The number increased by 99,045 from the previous year.
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
The preliminary figures for the number of births include foreigners living in Japan and Japanese living abroad, and the confirmed number of Japanese living in Japan is expected to decrease further. The number of births has continued to hit a record low since 2016, dropping below 1 million in 2016 and below 900,000 in 2019.
Takumi Fujinami, senior researcher at the Japan Research Institute, said, “Over the past five years, the number of births has been declining by regarding 3.5% compared to the previous year, and the number of marriages has also decreased sharply due to the impact of the new coronavirus. It is inevitable that the number of people will fall below 800,000.”
