Tokyo

The number of Japanese babies born in Japan in 2019 is estimated to total 864,000, slipping below 900,000 for the first time since the statistics were first compiled in 1899, the health ministry said Tuesday.

The annual total is expected to fall by some 54,000 from the 918,400 born the previous year, hitting a record low for the fourth straight year. The expected drop below 900,000 will come two years earlier than 2021, projected by a research institute of the ministry.

The number of deaths is projected at 1,376,000, hitting a record high in the post-World War II period. Japan’s natural population decline is estimated at 512,000, topping 500,000 for the first time, after exceeding 400,000 for the first time last year.

The number of newly married couples is estimated to hit a postwar record low of 583,000, down 3,000 year on year. The number of divorces is forecast at 210,000, up 2,000.

As reasons for the expected sharp drop in the number of newborn babies, the ministry cited a plunge in the number of couples married last year and a fall in the population of women at childbearing ages between 25 and 39.

The ministry believes that the current trend will continue.

A demographic forecast released in 2017 by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research showed that the number of babies born in Japan, including non-Japanese babies, would total 921,000 in 2019, 902,000 in 2020 and 886,000 in 2021.

Jiji Press