Society

Births in Japan fall to record low in 2018

Jun 08 (NHK) - Government statistics show that Japan's population is shrinking at a faster pace as births hit a new record low.

The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry says the average number of children a woman gives birth to in her lifetime stood at 1.42 in 2018. That's slightly down from a year earlier.

Okinawa was the prefecture with the highest fertility rate at 1.89. Tokyo had the lowest at 1.20.

Almost 920,000 babies were born last year. That is the fewest since statistics began in 1899.

About 1.36 million people died, the most since the end of World War Two.

The number of deaths minus that of births was about 444,000, a record high for an eleventh year in a row.

The number of male-female couples who married last year stood at 586,000. That's the lowest since the end of World War Two.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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