Jun 06 (Japan Today) - The number of babies born in Japan totaled 865,234 in 2019, down 53,166 from the previous year and marking the lowest level on record, government data showed Friday.
The nation's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime -- decreased 0.06 point to 1.36, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths in the reporting year stood at 1,381,098, the highest since the end of World War II.
As a result, the number of deaths outnumbered births by 515,864, marking the biggest margin of fall since comparable data were made available in 1899.
In May, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet vowed to provide support, including for fertility treatment, so that the average number of children per couple increases to 1.8.
The number of newborns has been on a declining trend since peaking at about 2.7 million in 1949.
The average age at which Japanese women gave birth to their first children stood at 30.7, remaining the same for the fifth consecutive year.
The number of marriages increased for the first time in seven years to 598,965, up 12,484 from the previous year, which some officials believe was due to the desire of many couples to get married in the first year of Japan's new Reiwa era beginning on May 1, 2019, with the imperial succession.
The average age of first marriages stood at 31.2 for men, up 0.1 from the previous year, and 29.6 for women, up 0.2, increasing for both for the first time in six years.
The number of divorces also increased 156 to 208,489, according to the data.
